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Have No Fear: The Life Of Pope John Paul II
MOVIE: ABC, Thursday 12/1 at 8:00p (120 minutes)

Have No Fear: The Life Of Pope John Paul II
Critic Score
Metascore: 36 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
6.2 out of 10
based on 20 reviews
read critic reviews
how did we calculate this?
based on 13 votes
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Starring Thomas Kretschmann, Bruno Ganz, Joaquim de Almeida, John Albasiny, Paulius Ignatavicius, Jasper Harris, and Ignas Survila

Thomas Kretschmann ("The Pianist") stars as the late Pope in this short made-for-television biopic.

GENRE(S): Biography, Drama
FIRST AIR DATE: December 1, 2005

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

88
New York Post Adam Buckman
Kretschmann... delivers one of the finest performances seen on TV this year.
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70
Wall Street Journal Nancy DeWolf Smith
Any way you portray Karol Wojtyla, he comes out looking extraordinary.
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60
The New York Times Alessandra Stanley
The movie races so quickly through the milestones of his career... that some of the most powerful moments in his papacy are underplayed.
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58
Entertainment Weekly Timothy Guanatilaka
This heart-tugger suffers from efficiency. [2 Dec 2005, p.74]
50
USA Today Robert Bianco
Fear plays like an illustrated Life of the Saints on fast-forward. Blink and you can miss decades.
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50
Philadelphia Inquirer Jonathan Storm
Partially because of its more cursory treatment of the Pope's life, the show seems less preachy and more emotional than the CBS effort, and more appropriate.
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40
Time James Poniewozik
In the end, both [CBS' and ABC's Pope] movies stick to what viewers can agree on (commies and Nazis, bad; love, good), while skipping much of the Pope's sometimes polarizing tenure as a leader.
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40
Hollywood Reporter Barry Garron
This depiction of John Paul II as half human, half saint -- though hardly unexpected and possibly even warranted -- leaves us with a character that is less dimensional and less relatable and, consequently, less interesting.
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30
Newsday Verne Gay
All this feels dutiful and rote - the CliffsNotes version.
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30
Variety Brian Lowry
Granted, the smaller time frame makes it more difficult to chronicle an 80-some-odd-year life, but what emerges is a CliffsNotes version that fastidiously avoids crowd shots (presumably to keep costs down) and struggles to create drama with its worshipful tone.
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30
San Jose Mercury News Charlie McCollum
Anything remotely resembling complexity and nuance has been sacrificed to cramming six decades of history into two hours of airtime, minus commercials.
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30
Los Angeles Times Robert Lloyd
The accelerating pace of the movie runs roughshod over the drama.
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30
Slate Dana Stevens
It zips through 60-plus years of Wojtyla's life at a pace that manages to be both breakneck and boring.
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30
Chicago Tribune Sid Smith
The movie is more a series of biographical announcements than penetrating drama.
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25
New York Daily News David Hinckley
Stiflingly reverential, sadly superficial.
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20
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Ann Rodgers
Because the movie tries to cover too much ground, it will be incoherent for those who don't already know the story, and disappointing for those who do. Worse, it is off-key in its presentation of both minor and major passages of his life.
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10
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Melanie McFarland
Largely worthless.
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10
Washington Post Tom Shales
Even though the life of the Polish pope... obviously is loaded with dramatic potential, the film seems listlessly uninterested in exploring it.
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10
Boston Globe Matthew Gilbert
Turns the pope into a pious stick figure.
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0
Chicago Sun-Times Doug Elfman
I think I could have written a better script during the two hours it took me to watch "Have No Fear." I think you could, too, and I don't even know you.
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What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this tv show is 6.2 (out of 10) based on 13 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

[Anonymous] gave it a10:
I have never seen this movie before but how in the world can anybody review this movie it is his life it is supose to be boring but interesting

John gave it a9:
This was as great as the cbs mini series if not better

Paul W gave it an8:
Kretschmann was marvelous. The show was hurried because of the one night format, but it was interesting drama. The directorial decisions of this movie made more sense than those of the CBS miniseries; Thank you ABC for a good effort. Are you selling the DVD?

[Anonymous] gave it a0:
probably one of the worst movies I've seen. I'm currently watching the cbs version of the popes life and it seems to be much better made, better acting and more accurately desripting His forming years in Poland

Taryn W gave it an8:
How refreshing to watch "believable acting" set in an authentic setting. I knew very little about the deceased Pope, and found the film rivetting!

Debbie S gave it a9:
Movie was just starting as I was channel surfing and it caught my attention. Couldn't change the channel after that. I thought it was done very well.

Hubert T gave it a10:
OK, first of all im only 14 years old and yes I was born in Poland. But sad to say i didn't like this movie that much. It's to short but, you all have to understand that the movie was set as a flashback. When John Paul II was praying at the Black Madonna in his older years he's thinking of what has happened in his life as from the time he was there as a child with his father. Also in the movie he says while praying at the time ,"As I was here praying for my mother's soul I was also praying for my poor father," ( or somthing close to that ).Tho I don't agree with the ending. His death comes to quick. And The flashbacks are to short they should have included more important detailed things about his life. I'm rating this movie as a 10 beacuse of the well done job by the actors and the parts of the movie that were wonderfully done.

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