Pope Joan (2009)

I'll tell you why so serious

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

"Pope Joan" is a movie with a message, or rather an agenda, and it shoves it down the throats of the audience with the subtlety of a jackhammer. This piece of dreck will surely insult the intelligence of anyone with a 9th-grade education or higher.In a pathetic attempt to give the script a pseudo-intellectual tone, the writers lifted selections from Western Philosophy 101, the New International Version, Introduction to Feminism, and 19th Century anti-Catholic propaganda and recycled it in the form of pretentious dialogue; "I think, therefore God exists?!" Misquoting Renee Descartes and adding a little bit of the Ontological Argument doesn't make laughably bad lines like "I think, therefore God exists" actually logical. If the writers wanted to give the audience a lesson in philosophy and Church History, they could have skipped this piece of historically inaccurate fiction and made a film about St. Anselm of Canterbury (but that would have been a snooze). When reading about the woman who wrote the book on which this film is based, it turns out that "Pope Joan" is her only novel; the rest of her publications are self-help books. Go figure.In a pathetic attempt to convince us that the mission of the Catholic Church is to keep knowledge, love, and responsibility away from women, this film insults the real women of the early Catholic Church who paved the way for female dignity. Those women were called nuns. From the time that St. Scholastica founded the first women's monastery in the 6th Century up until the present, Catholic nuns have managed the business affairs of their self-sufficient communities, dedicated themselves to learning and knowledge, composed music, and written scholarly works unsurpassed by men. They fought off invaders, risked their lives to found new communities in foreign countries, stood up to Popes and kings, refused to be used as pawns in arranged marriages, and were disowned by their families all for the sake of becoming closer to God through prayer, knowledge, and love. They did all of this without having to deceive themselves and others by denying their womanhood or hopping in bed with some man, unlike the title character of this movie. At least the film mentions St. Catherine of Alexandria, and there are hundreds more women Saints whose stories are equally gripping: Hildegarde von Bingen, Catherine of Siena, Clare of Assisi, Agnes of Prague, Colette of Corbie, Teresa of Avila, Elisabeth of Hungary, just to name a few. Read the letters or autobiographies of many of these women (you'd never guess from "Pope Joan," but yes, medieval Catholic women did in fact know how to write!) rather than watching a movie; most films about the Saints are sugar-coated and poorly acted.That being said, even the corniest Saint movies aired on EWTN are better than the cardboard acting in "Pope Joan."

I m sorry to comment against you but you should really check this out!Please search in w i k e p e d i a about a Greek literature man Emmanuel Rhoides. There is an age gap between the 2 persons and the story is completely similar. Do something for it. It is really shameful that people can claim pieces of art of their own since it does not belong to them.. I d like to enhance the Greek art and to let people know that the truth is hidden. The first edition of Pope Joan was published in 1886 and for sure this fact is true as long as this literature man was unchurched from the catholic and orthodox church. Please pay some attention to this review...it really worth it

The story is old. The details are spices of dusty legend. The tragedy of a Roman Church "accident" is chapter of many conspiracy books. But, behind that things, "Pope Joan" is a beautiful film. And this fact is important.For costumes and atmosphere, for extraordinary John Goodman and for the art of details, for the basic fact than the IX-th century is another XXI century, for the perfume of serenity and the force of a myth to be stronger than reality. For the feeling than Joan exist without any testimony. For the spring air and grass smell. For the art to destroy clichés. For remember of essential values of human circle and the end as fly of ash bird. For the warm impression . Historic movie, it is in fact a parable. Like many who sleeps in our memories.

I went to see Pope Joan with a group of friends the day it was released in Germany. Most of us had already read the book, but some had not. We were all quite skeptical as to whether the movie would be true to the book and whether it wasn't a little too long (two and a half hours seemed a lot to us!). But, after having seen it, I must say it was one of the most absorbing two-and-half-hours-movie I've ever seen. I didn't have a look at my watch once.The story is quite true to the book. I read the book at least 8 years ago, so I had forgotten most of it. However, when the plot evolved, my memory came back and I didn't notice any major deviances from the book, neither did my friends."Pope Joan" is just a classical historical movie and everyone who loves that genre, will most certainly enjoy the movie! It has everything you need: a charismatic heroine who challenges the role of women in her time; some good and wise clergymen (John Goodman is great fun as food-loving, jovial Pope!); some evil and brutal clergymen who want to spread Christianity violently; some scheming and intrigues; a good portion of war and battle scenes; a romantic love story and, last but not least that interesting question at the end that will certainly cause you to discuss with your friends and search wikipedia: Was there really a woman who became Pope?