"Pope Francis: A Man of His Word" is the most recent work by renowned German filmmaker Wim Wenders. After his huge success with critics and an Oscar nomination for his last documentary back in 2014, his three most recent fiction films have been panned mostly, but this one here seems like a success again. Maybe documentaries are more his kind of thing now and the next "Wings of Desire" may not be around the corner. The title here is fairly telling already in terms of what to expect. This is a film about the current Pope. Interestingly enough, wenders made it about the first South American Pope and not about the man who comes from Germany like Wenders and was the Pope before Francis, which may of course have to do with the fact that Francis is far more liberal than Benedict in terms of the Church's values and comments on critical subjects like same-sex relationships, abortions, marriage and several other subjects. But is he really? Some parts of this 1.5-hour movie may indicate that he is, but I read a very recent article yesterday or today that says basically that he comments exactly like the Popes before him on these subjects. Then again it is probably tough to make really modern statements in the position he is in, maybe even impossible. But this should not be the core subject here. Actually, the documentary is much more about global problems like poverty, the environment, children and human rights than it is really about the subject of religion, which may be a bit surprising given who the film is about. But maybe positively surprising even as it is interesting to see a Pope trying to make an impact in these areas and maybe he can help things taking a turn for the better given the fact how much he is admired by these billions of people. Other than that, it is pretty much what you would expect. A bit of insight into earlier years of Francis, but not too much and not too early. We see him travel and see devout Christians touch his hand while being awestruck. We hear interviews with him, we see him on stage and even holding a speech in congress. Sadly, Wenders does not manage to make the film (or the man it is about) stand out as much as I hoped he could. His voice is as nice to listen to as always, even if it not too frequent, basically just brief parts early on and very late. What he says is also not particularly memorable and I struggled in making a connection with the subject there really. The (not so) subtle criticism against the likes of Erdogan, Putin and Trump really feels out of place at the very end and should have been left out entirely. But I guess it fits in well with the mainstream media's message these days. With a quality movie that truly makes an impact, it does not though. Nonetheless, I give the film a thumbs-up. It's a solid look at the current head of Christianity and summarizes him well overall I would say giving interesting insights here and there and some specific facts like that he is the very first Francis in this position. The reenacted flashback scenes with Francis of Assisi did not work too well I'd say, but they also weren't among the film's weakest parts and this area is really all subjective I'd say. Even if it was an okay outcome, it lets me think that Wenders may be past peak, actually for a while already. I hope I'm wrong. All in all, a thumbs-up. Go see it if you care for the subject.
