This bittersweet parable has loads of charm but several graver issues are also raised.
Comment
09/09/08
The Pope's Toilet (2007)
88
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:25
Fresh:22
Rotten:3
Average Rating:6.6/10
Consensus: An offbeat charmer, The Pope's Toilet is a humorous, well-crafted tale with plenty of heart and a poignant social message.
Theatrical Release:01-08-2008
Synopsis: Bouncing between moments of humor and gentle drama, this Uruguayan film is set in the late 1980s in a small town that is anxiously awaiting the arrival of Pope John Paul II. While the swell of... [More]
Starring: Cesar Troncoso, Virginia Mendez, Virginia Ruiz, Mario Silva
Director: César Charlone, Enrique Fernandez
Reviews for The Pope's Toilet
Top CriticCharming and hilariously offbeat.
08/01/08
It’s charming in a proper way, entirely avoiding sentiment and can be counted one of the best films in town.
08/01/08
Lots of bruised humour, quiet virtuosity – watch for the slow-motion montage of disaster – and doggy-eyed optimism.
08/01/08
El Baño Del Papa (which translates as The Pope’s Toilet) is an engaging and humane affair, never losing sight of its characters’ material hardships.
08/01/08
Worth spending a penny on, but not much more.
08/01/08
Full of folksy humour but next to no urgency, it's a strangely exasperating slice of humdrum world cinema.
08/01/08
Top CriticThis is a heartfelt and deadpan portrait of the knife-edge poverty of people who are not so much greedy as desperate.
08/01/08
Top CriticBeto as a character is problematic – one minute hes a twinkly, moustachiod dreamer hoping for a better life; the next he’s a macho bully who shoves his cowering wife around their shack. The film requires that we focus on the former and forgive the latter.
08/01/08
Top CriticA little toilet humour goes a long way in this otherwise sobering portrait of life in a rural corner of South America.
07/31/08
Top CriticOverall an emotionally rich and tender film, beautifully played, with heart and head in massive abundance.
07/31/08
Top CriticEngaging, well acted and superbly directed drama that often feels like a Uruguayan Ken Loach movie.
07/31/08
A pseudo-documentary that focuses on the hardships and penuries of their characters with such visual and dramatic intensity that its irony is often pushed aside.
05/24/07
Despite the sensationalism of Holy Father’s arrival, the subtext here is that there’s a speck on the map whose poor are treated as well as a backed-up john.
06/18/09
A celebration of hope, humor and resilience among the humble and only secondarily a dig at media distortion and the disconnect between the Church and the poor.
04/19/09
The cast of pros and amateurs provides realistic performances, and co-director Charlone's lensing makes beautiful use of the rough landscape in a movie even the pope would enjoy.
04/10/09
Watch it now, and you’ll be surprised how such a little movie can cut so deeply to the bone.
04/08/09
The Pope's Toilet entertains, even while it illustrates how the impoverished can adjust their religious ideals out of desperation.
04/08/09
The Pope’s Toilet cloaks religious critique in the scrappy tempo of irremediable poverty and irrepressible enterprise.
04/08/09
Top CriticAlthough not the best imaginative movie title ever to grace a matinee sign, The Pope's Toilet resonates with a distinctive warmth and sense of reality and purpose.
04/07/09
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