The Man from Rome

No pun intended - of course some may not know the man (actor that is) - not everyone has seen or does watch many movies like I and maybe you do. On the other hand, if you are here, there has to be a reason for this, no? Maybe even our main actor is one of those reasons. I quite like him - that said, that doesn't change my feelings towards the movie.

It is a nice B-Action movie - with some interesting casting choices. While I really like Franco Nero - he does phone it in. And can you blame him? That's rhetorical of course. Action and cinematography is also at least decent. So if you are into that kind of thing ... there are worse things or rather movies out there than this ...

Greetings again from the darkness. It appears as if Catholicism has gone high-tech! Of course, with that comes the risk of being hacked, and that's how this film from writer-director Sergio Dow begins. Based on the 1995 novel "La Piel del Tambor" ("The Skin of the Drum") by Spanish author Arturo Perez-Reverte, the list of those with a writing credit includes: Adrian Bol, Beth Bollinger, Gretchen Cowan, Carolina Lopez-Rodriguez, Sheila Willis, and Luis Zelkowicz, Yes, so while the premise is appealing, it's likely too many fingers in the writer's pie created the tangled web that prevented this one from reaching greater heights.

Richard Armitage stars as Father Quart, the best Priest-Investigator the Vatican can offer. Mr. Armitage performed admirably in a couple of Harlan Coben limited series, "Stay Close" and "The Stranger", and he has a unique and quietly compelling screen presence ... and probably very few other actors could come across as somewhat believable in the role of Priest-Cop. Still dwelling on a tragic error in his last case, Quart is sent to Seville, Spain where a 17th century church has been the scene of some recent unexplained deaths. Upon arrival, he learns the church is also a key element in a family squabble related to a pending land development deal.

Macarena (Alma Salamanca) and her mother Duquesa Cruz Bruner (Fionnula Flanagan, dropping her familiar Irish brogue for a Spanish accent) are self-funding the church renovations, while Macarena's estranged husband, the ambitious and unscrupulous Pencho (Rodolfo Sancho) is pushing for the razing of the church so the large development project can proceed. Also included in this battle are Gris (Alicia Borrachero), who is the church's architectural restorer, Monsignor Spada (screen veteran Paul Guilfoyle) pushing Quart to close the case, Padre Ferro (Paul Freeman), the Priest from the small church who believes Quart is the bad guy, Padre Cooey (Carlos Cuevas), a Priest with other-worldly tech skills, and the always great Franco Nero who plays the Pope in a couple of scenes (interesting that he also played a different era Pope in Russell Crowe's recent thriller, THE POPE'S EXORCIST).

The deaths occurring inside Our Lady of Tears church may or may not be mysterious, but what is clear pretty quickly is that greed and corruption are quite prevalent in this situation. The film opens with Father Quart offering his own personal confession, and this is meant to convey that he really is a good guy (not a perfect one) looking for answers ... not a lackey sent to get the high-dollar deal closed. The film is at its best when Armitage is on screen, yet the story might have benefitted from a deeper dive into the corruption aspect.

These days, a money-laundering scheme is the preferred scandal for the Catholic Church, and it's kind of humorous to think that the Vatican might have a bullpen of programmers wearing Priest collars as they cyber-protect the Church. There are some fight scenes that aren't particularly well-staged, although the work of renowned Spanish composer Roque Banos is a highlight, as are the beautiful locales. We are left feeling like this could have worked best as a limited series on Netflix.

Opening in theaters and On Demand June 30, 2023.

This co-production between Spain/Colombia/United States/Italy begins in Vatican City, 1995. A hacker breaks into the Pope's (Franco Nero) personal computer, leaving a message in which he assures that the Church of Our Lady of Tears kills to defend itself. Monsignor Spada (Paul Guilfoyle) entrusts the mission to his best agent, the priest Quart (Richard Armitage), who has extensive experience in the dark affairs of the Vatican. Thus, the protagonist of the story is a priest, a member of the Institute of External Works (IOE) of the Vatican. He was orphaned at a very young age and was raised in a religious environment, which led him to become a man of integrity in his obligations. When he arrives in Seville, he will discover that he still has a lot to learn and that not everything is a matter of rules. In the populous city Quart will meet the Duchess Cruz Bruner (Fionnula Flanagan) and her daughter Macarena Bruner (Amaia Salamanca) divorced from a powerful banker (Rodolfo Sancho) who has dark purposes for the Church of Our Lady of Tears.

Adaptation of the novel by Arturo Pérez Reverte whose main book was adapted in 2006: ¨Alatriste¨ directed by Agustín Díaz Yanes, based on his series of novels El Capitán Alatriste, following a television series about said character, and, the following year, ¨La carta esférica¨, directed by Imanol Uribe, in 2022, his novel ¨La piel del tambor¨ (international title "The Skin of the Drum"), is set mainly in Seville, and regularly directed by Sergio Dow. Being adapted to the big screen with a good cast such as: Richard Armitage, Amaia Salamanca, Alicia Borrachero, Rodolfo Sancho, Paul Guilfoyle, Will Keen, Féodor Atkine, Unax Ugalde, Simón Andreu and special appearance by Franco Nero. This was the first film where Franco Nero plays the Pope; he performed him again (a different role) in The Pope's Exorcist (2023), as the film is set in the 80s.

There are several characters surrounding the twisted plot: the main one is the handsome Father Quart, finely but without much enthusiasm played by Richard Armitage (The Hobbit), he belongs to the Church's Institute of Foreign Affairs, an arm of Vatican intelligence, and is sent to investigate. Macarena Bruner, mediocrely played by Amaia Salamanca, is a Sevillian aristocrat who tries to prevent the collapse of the church where her ancestors are buried and where strange things happen. After meeting Quart, Macarena is attracted to him and will help him in his investigations. Cruz Bruner is played by the Irish Fionnula Flanagan who happens to be Macarena's mother. Príamo Ferro is played by the veteran Paul Freeman as the old and tough priest of the church who is against the demolition of Nuestra Señora de las Lágrimas and will do everything possible to prevent it, he is also the confessor of Macarena and her mother. Monsignor Spada: Paul Guilfoyle (CSI), is Quart's superior and, therefore, a member of the OIE and who assigns him the dangerous mission. Pencho Gavira: Rodolfo Sancho (Isabel), is the general manager of the Banco Cartujano who wants the church to be demolished for personal and economic reasons; his wife, only for legal purposes and from whom he is separated, is Macarena Bruner.

Despite having a large part of Spanish actors and being set in Spain (more precisely in Seville, Andalusia, which is somewhat wasted), the film was shot in English. None of the Spanish actors dubbed themselves for the Spanish version, but the dubbing was downright awful and seriously spoiled the film.

It is based on a novel written by the Spanish author Arturo Pérez-Reverte and scripted by many writers who did not know how to weave the plot lines of the intriguing novel well, they are: Adrian Bol, Beth Bollinger, Gretchen Cowan, Carolina López-Rodriguez, Luis Zelkowicz. Reverte is a Spanish journalist and television reporter, who became a writer and today the best-selling author in Spain and the best-selling Spanish author in the world. Famous author of the "Alatriste" novels as he did much of the research work on historical documents related to 17th century Madrid. His novels have the common thread of being based on real historical times and that in each case a great deal of research is devoted to the elaboration of his stories, as well as the fact that he has had to learn a great deal about subjects ranging from the game of chess to the first historical editions of the Dutch masters of the 16th century, through to computing and even swordplay. His extraordinary imaginative abilities have been able to produce well-written adventure stories. The following novels have been adapted to film: ¨El maestro de esgrima¨ by director Pedro Olea, ¨Territorio comanche¨ by Gerardo Herrero, ¨La novena puerta¨ by Roman Polanski, ¨Cachito¨ by Enrique Irbuzu, ¨Gitano¨ by Manuel Palacios, ¨Uncovered¨ based on ¨La tabla de Flandes¨ by Jim McBride and ¨La Carta Esférica¨ by Pedro Olea.

There is an attractive photography by the cameraman Aitor Mantxola from Carmona, Seville, Andalusia, Vatican City, Rome, Lazio, Italy, although I feel that the wonderful interiors and exteriors are somewhat wasted, they should have photographed the showy city of Seville more, and even the 'Giralda' does not appear. There is also a lively but overly repetitive musical score by the prestigious Roque Baños. The film was poorly written and directed by Sergio Dow, who does not unravel the plot well, allowing himself to be carried away by confusion and muddying the events, not competently distributing the different skeins of the script and without the necessary clarity.

I was hoping this film would be more action/horror based than cerebral.. Sadly it was more the latter. The action scenes were pretty naff to be honest and really needed beefing up to give the whole film more bite. The long periods of relative inactivity saw some reasonable acting.

Got to admit i have a soft spot for these Euro collaborations, they nearly wlays end up being a mixed bag.

Richard Armitage is pretty comvincing as a Bible Bond, it's just a shame he didn't flex his muscles enough or, like i said previously, be hamstrung by some extremely ropey fight choreography.

All in it's watchable, i gave it a generous 6 but it's more like a 5, a few more better choreographed fights and it would be a solid 6 IMHO.

Well, I sat down to watch this with fairly low expectations, given some of the reviews I had seen from various media outlets. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was a lot more watchable and interesting than I expected.

Richard Armitage is always good value and he has plenty of charisma onscreen. The supporting cast did a good job, too. Sure, the script was a bit clunky in places, but the plot was quite interesting and it moved at a decent pace.

The locations in Seville and Rome were beautifully shot. The natural light made them look stunning, actually.

So, don't take all the bad reviews at face value. It's not a great movie, but it's quite good and certainly not a waste of your time to watch it.