About 90% of Conclave is Ralph Fiennes furrowing his brow. That Voldemort is an A-level brow furrower. He just scrunches that thing so tight until a remarkable amount of tension just pours out of his wrinkled forehead and spills all over John Lithgow and Stanley Tucci. The tone of this review already took an unintended turn, but the Catholic Church is involved, so that feels right.
Based on Robert Harris’s book, writer Peter Straughan and director Edward Berger have crafted a crackerjack closed-room thriller in which God maybe has her finger on the scale. Set in the immediate aftermath of a pope croaking, Conclave plays with politics, does the whodunnit dance, and copies courtroom drama. It’s got so much talking, you guys. It’s mostly just talking. Talking and frowning. Talking and frowning and pacing and anguished decision-making. It’s everything adults hate in real life and love in films!
Most of the talking and frowning and pacing and anguished decision-making is done by Cardinal Lawrence (Fiennes), a principled man struggling with his faith and place in the church. Not the ideal person to run the election of the next pope, but whaddya gonnado, right? The short list for the Supreme Pontiff is relatively small. Cardinal Adeyemi (Lucian Msamati) from Africa is an early favorite. Cardinal Bellini (Tucci) is a liberal hopeful terrified that Cardinal Tedesco (Sergio Castellitto) will undo whatever counts as progress among Catholics. Cardinal Tremblay (Lithgow) is nakedly power hungry and has been hard at work amassing support.
As the votes are split and factions get testy, Lawrence finds himself a reluctant candidate for the fancy hat himself. He resists this, telling his biggest supporter to quit voting for him. That fan is Cardinal Benitez, a Mexican archbishop who was secretly appointed to a position in Kabul, Afghanistan by the now-dead pope. Under the watchful eye of Sister Agnes (Isabella Rossellini), the men begin exhibiting all the nastiness you’d expect from dudes jockeying for what is somehow maybe the most desired seat of authority in the whole of human history.
The stakes are part of what makes Conclave great. The significance of the pope isn’t lost on even the most adamant atheist. That makes the conniving, the backstabbing, the secrets, and the scandals that much more delightful. And it sets up an ending that may not be everyone’s cup of tea but produced an audible squeal in the theater. I was the only one in that screening.
And that is disappointing. Because this is the kind of gorgeous, smart-but-also-kinda-dumb entertainment for grown ups that we used to get more often. It’ll play fine on small streaming screens, but those who discover it there will lose the grandeur of Stéphane Fontaine’s lush cinematography. They can’t possibly feel the same resonance of Volker Bertelmann’s stunning score. They won’t feel the amplified frenzy of being in an enclosed space while watching powerful dorks in silly costumes battle it out. It’s basically a Marvel movie with slightly more holiness.
Although Berger’s Oscar-winning All Quiet on the Western Front didn’t quite work for me, his skill was as inarguable as who the good guys are in a World War 2 movie. Sorry, at least as inarguable as that fact used to be. Plenty of people do seem keen on arguing about that now. The point is, everything he delivers works perfectly here. The whole film does, even if it is in service of relatively silly, pulpy papal shenanigans. Can we at least all agree this is the most fun anyone has ever had with Vatican bureaucracy?
Grade = A-
Other Critical Voices to Consider
Morgan Rojas at Cinemacy says “A conspiracy thriller set during one of the world’s most secretive religious events, Conclave will have you murmuring “Oh my God” under your breath.”
Jackson Weaver at the CBC says “Because for all its slick cinematography, prescient topics and heavy-hitter stars, Conclave is more movie-of-the-week than the awards-bait it’s already begun to be billed as. It is, at its heart, a deeply silly film masquerading as serious social commentary — a sort of Mean Girls in robes, juggling a seemingly impactful message that instantly shatters into a thousand little pieces the moment you actually start to examine it.”
Lindsey Bahr at the Associated Press says “Conclave is sure to ruffle some Catholic feathers — provocation is in its DNA. But for the rest of us, this juicy, smartly crafted thriller, is simply a great watch.”