Benedict's own later theological conservatism owed less to any kind of ideology, I think, than to his allergic reaction to what he saw as a lackof intellectual robustness and spiritual seriousness in the seminaries where he taught.
Much of the plot is a rehash of the origin story we saw in the 2002's Tobey Maguire film but this strong cast imbues it with a freshness and seriousness that Maguire's sometimes cartoonish film lacked.