Padre Pio

The sins and injustices of the outside world find terrible expression in St Pio of Pietrelcina’s body and imperfect expression in Ferrara’s 22nd feature.

Any authenticity is skewered by the decision to shoot in Italian-accented English, meaning that much of the dialogue sounds as hammy as a leg of prosciutto.

Padre Pio is an unholy mess.

Padre Pio is often as rewarding as it is challenging.

Ferrara’s Padre Pio is not the hero of his movie, far from it. But his sainted Pio does pose moral quandaries that may require heroic effort to reconcile.

It's like two totally different movies have been slammed up against each other.

Ferrara uses the absence of light as a presage of fear and terror [...]. This is how Padre Pio effectively plays with the audience as well&#59; when a scene gets darker, it gradually escalates into something strange, sinister even.

Padre Pio, ironically, is too reverent and uncomplicated for a biopic on the canonized firestarter.

Confused and unsatisfying, Padre Pio had the potential to be a gripping religious biopic in the vein of Martin Scorsese’s Silence. As it is, two once-promising talents squander an interesting premise, with the audience being taken to cinematic purgatory.

Go and see Padre Pio if you think you’re hard enough. It’s mostly true and it’s an eye-opening watch.