Margaret Hofstetter

Three stars for cinematography, direction, Ralph Fiennes acting. Maybe because I was raised Catholic and had 12 years of their education and know the rituals well, but I found the movie slow-moving and boring a full 1/3 of the way in. The "scandals" didn't shock me at all, if they were supposed to. I found the characters to be rather stock (Todesco was going to stand up and scream that Muslims are animals, who could see that coming?), and the outcome totally predictable. A LOT of missed opportunity to examine the issues in the Church and their tone deaf responses to their members and modern life, but it seemed the whole point was to show the "mysterious" voting process - yawn. So lots of really nice window dressing to take in, not a lot of substance to think about when you're done.

An incredible movie to come out at this time of anti-immigrant sentiment in our country to remind us of who most of us are! The fact that Americans ever villify immigrants is ludicrous. As a t- shirt I saw recently said, "Unless your ancestors look like this (picture of indigenous people in traditional garb), you're an immigrant." Every arriving nationality has had to fight and claw for acceptance and survival - in a nation of immigrants. Every American should see this movie because, just like in the 19th century, we still just don't get it.