Review – Pope John Paul II

Even by made-for-TV standards, this one’s a stinker. It’s split into two parts (thus technically making it a miniseries), and the title character is played by two actors. In the first part the young Pole is portrayed by puffy-looking Cary Elwes. Then in the second half creepy Jon Voight takes on the role. But the casting is sheer genius compared to the script. Characters pop in and out of the Pope’s life so fast that the audience has little chance to figure out who they are, let alone care about their contributions to the story. The emphasis throughout is heavily placed on Polish nationalism, leaving the impression that the man made no other contribution to the world besides anti-Nazism and anti-Communism. The direction was likewise dreadful; just one of the production’s many faults was the constant, amateur-hour use of awkward wipes to move from location to location. While I suppose the subject had his faults, overall I think he deserved a better tribute than this. See if desperate