Padre Pio

You will leave the theater still knowing nothing about Padre Pio. I think for a good actor like Shia Labeouf, it is a shame he was not given a better script and movie to be in. The problem with this is not the actors and actresses. It is this erroneously titled movie that should've been called "Communism-Lite Enters Italy and Padre Pio is Off in a Friary Somewhere." It is pretty much false advertising to title a film about a character who is in maybe 30% of the movie and has little to do with the rest of the story. Titling it "Padre Pio" would seemingly indicate biopic, but instead we are spending much of the movie with these other characters and political issues that seem like an underhanded push/propaganda for the director and writers' politics. It's like they used Padre Pio's name to attract an audience to watch another movie. I don't know if they did not have the budget to do a real movie about him, but feeling like a gypsy switch just took place when I'm staring at what feels like thinly disguised propaganda was something else. You will feel like you watched two short pieces that have been meshed together. This movie is an hour and forty-four minutes, so it doesn't have time for much. You will still feel empty as it goes into low-budget film school "trying to be arty" with handheld, grainy shots that linger on the same thing for far too long - almost as if they are deliberately stretching out a runtime. Right from the beginning with an overcast sky & sun, we get two exceedingly long shots of this. The second time around I was going "Okay, we got it. The sun is behind the clouds." Other shots that do not work were the spinning of the camera around a bell tower rope being pulled and the handheld closeups of a crucifix. It's a short feature already yet has filler disguised as supposedly interesting cinematography. I don't know, but I was like "Dude, I would've left that one out." I also think for fans of Padre Pio some of this probably comes across as pretty offensive. I don't know if Padre Pio flew off the handle in profanity spewing fits of rage at people, but he's certainly doing that in this movie.

Such a disappointment. Literally 20 minutes of the film contains Padre Pio. This movie focuses on political issues in Italy rather than Padre Pio. The film was boring & lacked any points of interest. Crew had no idea the talent in Shia LeBouf, who did a phenomenal job as Padre Pio. He wasn't given anywhere near enough screen time or enough opportunity to portray Padre Pio. Nudity in a film about the greatest saint of our time is so sacreligious & disrespectful to the man that is Padre Pio as well as his religion. This is an injustice to Padre Pio & such a bust. LeBouf was phenomenal, storyline was awful.

I've genuinely anticipated this movie, especially after the multiple pushbacks of the release date. I even saw the interviews LaBeouf has done about the sincerity behind his role as Padre Pio and conversion to Catholicism.

Unfortunately, the following of the political unfolding was very mundane and bare. And worse off, there was minimal tie between the current events to Padre Pio's influence on the people outside of maybe the Eucharist and a couple confessions.

I certainly can say every scene LaBeouf was in, he carried extremely well, but these were sparsely placed throughout the film, and felt very removed from the rest of the movie. However, these scenes still did have a depth and spiritual sense of sacredness that I wish pervaded more of the movie. The moments of his anguish and torment were compelling, but short lived, especially because they were juxtaposed against the aforementioned weakness of the exterior events.

When showing the forced labor the villagers were facing, the cinematography was very jagged and disorienting. I understand it was meant to instill a sense of anxiety and arduousness against the still, calm lensing of Pio's sanctuary, but it was so pronounced that it was just distracting and dizzying. I could get used to an Oliver Wood style of camera shake in an action movie, but it didn't work with this film.

There was little to no tension to the storyline to really illicit a yearn for resolution. Because of this, the film lacked emotional substance, and not stakes. I'm usually content with slower paced movies as long as there's still a sense of building tension.

Again, Shia's performance did stand out, but outside of that, I'm afraid to say this movie really did not carry the viewer through the depth and influence of Padre Pio. Not Shia's fault, more on the writers and director.

I think a better film around this monastic spiritual genre would be "Of Gods and Men."

Not sure why it's called Padre pio, it barely showed him. Even then it showed him in a bad light. Bad music score, camera work, really nothing redeeming about it.

It's like watching a really bad movie with a fee clips of a worse movie popping it.

Why not make a movie that actually shows him, the stigmata, lines of people coming to confess to him, his ability to read what was bothering people at confessions.

Why put in the nudity and profanity? Why use his name to promote this boring garbage.

We thought it would be good after hearing about LaBeouf converting it would be good. It's not remotely that.

I was not expecting much reverence for the subject matter in a film by Abel Ferrara, whose latest film was about the Vatican blowing up. Ferrara seems to be his own audience these days.

Nevertheless, Shia Labeouf's publicized conversion to Catholicism did spark some interest (though I thought he already did this for "Fury"). However, my nose was still very well plugged, and it remained so. This is not a biography. It is just empty, with no real direction in story, nor any perceivable goal. The shark in "Jaws" was better utilized than Saint Pio was in this film; at least the shark was central to the plot, and his presence was felt- even when he was offscreen.

Ferrara's other films are brutal, unrelenting, dark and negative, and yet utilize Catholic imagery as little more than window dressing. Such is the case with this film, only its also part of the title. Don't waste your time. Watch "Padre Pio: Miracle Man" or "Padre Pio: Between Heaven and Earth," instead.