Karol - O Papa, o homem

a brave act to continue history of a man of century with same actor, in same manner. but the courage is not imprudence but wise exercise to do a large fresco. with little pieces, without hurry or great ambitions. only a drawing in which every line is a way to public soul. a huge carpet - key of a world or only portrait of a fisherman in search of better society. secret - John Paul II is not perfect. it remains same man from Krakow, same intelligent builder of transformation beyond the Iron Curtain. this is sense of this work. and source of its touching beauty.in rest, inspired music, best acting, right atmosphere. and emotion as step for each level of story.because Karol, un Papa rimasto uomo is not propaganda or manifesto. only a map.new part of ...un uomo diventato papa but in different nuances. tale about use of authority, it is only short flash from a never ending beginning.

to critic this biopic is the first temptation for a not Romano-Catholic believer. but, maybe, the rain of stones to the director and actors is not exactly the wise choice. because it is not easy to imagine other solution to tell about a saint. the film is too sentimental and too sweet. a pious homage to a Pope suffocated by clichés and the status of impressive human institution. and to compare with the first part does more damages to this film. but... . it is a remember of well known events. it is a Catholic expression of respect and love for the most important European figure from the Church, in the second part of XX century. and, sure, it is a religious film. more than a biographic one. respecting the rules of the genre. so, it is so easy to critic it. but, in same measure, more important remains to respect a subjective adaptation of one of the most significant reign in Catholic Church from the last century.

I know, I know, many Poles and many Catholics will tear me to shreds, but come on, this sequel suffers almost all the bad moments you can ever imagine. It is too slow, too long, too sweet and almost saccharine in its delivery. The events at the same time are very jumbled and often seem to be utterly out of connection. What is worse, is the xtremely poor acting - the roles played by several people are too exaggerated, too naive and too much all over the place. Parts for Mother Teresa and some Communist workers are among the most unbearably bad examples of that The film suffers of too much worship ans veneration, too much of solemnity and too much seriousness. The Pope seems to be a frozen marble statue and not a vivid Karol of the first movie. The whole work is very sweet and too much pizzas and sugar - not realistic and far too overplayed. This is a fair try but it failed

I am Jewish but when I saw "Karol, the Pope" and especially the performance of Piotr Adamczyk, I thought this was Oscar performance. I lived in Los Angeles for many years and I think that this performance could NEVER get any nod from the 5,000 members of the Academy. Wrong topic, wrong religion, wrong nationality of the actor (Polish), etc. I am not politically correct right now, but that's what I think. His interpretation of the life of the Polish pope was exquisite, very emotional and just perfect. To show the Pope throughout the years, from the young man to the dying man, with all its humor, humaneness and big heart, was just unbelievable. I cried throughout the movie, which does not happen very often, because being a filmmaker I am very cynical. Have a nice day, Andre

I am an apostate Catholic, an agnostic and a cynic. Yet I was moved strongly by this excellent film which, if anything, is better than the first. Mind you, the bad guys are a little too bad. Heck, even assassins shave sometimes. And not all Soviet officials were quite as dour as the Russian heavies here. And surely Pope Paul John must have had some character flaws, however tiny. But no matter. The film captures the goodness of the man without being either preachy or idealistic. This is a well done historical epic that I trust will be trotted out every ten or fifteen years. It definitely will stand the test of time. And, coincidentally, kudos to CBC for showing it first in North America.