Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Josephina Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Haven Kaycee It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Chiara Offreduccio "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."

flyn601 Bet money it's true but the Church will never admit it. The Catholic Church is INFAMOUS for "hiding" truths (i.e. the pedophile priests they've hidden out for years). It's a shame that a woman had to go to those lengths to be able to serve God. It's a shame that women who want to serve cannot; but our churches in the United States are being staffed by priests from foreign countries (i.e. Mexico). This, I strongly believe, is a disservice to United States Catholics! My parish is served by a priest from Mexico and he is a very poor orator. The language barrier is significant and this is something that cannot be overcome by a few ESL classes.

Armand 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.

nicco77 It is for sure one of the best movies about ancient history and educated women that I seen so far, what makes this unique is that Joan strives to excel in religion and science. She comes from a traditional middle-ages background where women are uneducated so she has to learn how to look and act like a man to be able to follow her passion, this creates a constant struggle to hide her true gender.Her intelligent and strength in human character shines through the canvas and what she manages to accomplish in her lifetime was phenomenal!