I would prefer not to

Habemus papam (We have a pope)

WHC

I missed this at the Criterion when I was on the Scary Normal set, so this was a welcome opportunity not only to see it, but to see it for free!

And what a delight! I expected it to be witty and entertaining, but I had no idea that Michel Piccoli's reluctant pope, Cardinal Melville, would be so sweet, and his conundrum so moving. Anyone expecting any cutting-edge anti-Catholicism will come away disappointed. Yes, the College of Cardinals is a bunch of goofy old men, and yes, writer-director Nanni Moretti, who also plays the first of two psychoanalysts commissioned to treat the pope for his pastoral paralysis (the second is the estranged wife of the first), has fun with set pieces that range from droll (Moretti's character i session with Melville, the two encircled by cardinals) to raucous (a volleyball tournament pitting the cardinals against one another, continent by continent) to surreal (the cardinals in the finest funny-hatted drag invading a theater where the pontiff on the lam is trying to enjoy The Seagull), but never is he humor anything but affectionate. A bittersweet charmer.