Conclave film poster and movie review

Movie Reviews

Conclave

Reviewed by:
Luke Bonanno on October 24, 2024

Theatrical Release:
October 25, 2024

"Conclave" is powerful cinema and drama of the highest order.

Running Time120 min

RatingPG

Running Time 120 min

RatingPG

Edward Berger

Peter Straughan (screenplay); Richard Harris (novel)

Ralph Fiennes (Cardinal Thomas Lawrence), Stanley Tucci (Cardinal Bellini), John Lithgow (Cardinal Tremblay), Sergio Castellitto (Cardinal Tedesco), Isabella Rossellini (Sister Agnes), Lucian Msamati (Cardinal Adeyemi), Carlos Diehz (Cardinal Benitez), Brían F. O'Byrne (Monsignor Raymond O'Malley), Merab Ninidze (Cardinal Sabbadin), Thomas Loibl (Archbishop Mandorff), Jacek Koman (Archbishop Woźniak), Loris Loddi (Cardinal Villanueva)


Conclave (2024)

by Luke Bonanno

There is something uniquely exhilarating about entering a film with no particular interest in its subject matter only to end up utterly captivated. I cannot imagine many moviegoers craving for a dramatization of a modern day papal election, but Edward Berger chose just such a thing for his follow-up to his Oscar-winning 2021 German language adaptation All Quiet on the Western Front.

This time out, Berger is working in English, adapting Robert Harris’ 2016 novel of the same name in Conclave. Perhaps you expect something preachy or pious of a drama set exclusively in Vatican City as esteemed cardinals from all over the world gather to choose a successor to the suddenly deceased leader of the Roman Catholic Church. You do not get those ingredients at least not to the extent that you get a rich character study, an immersive mystery, and a gripping portrait of the policies and politics by which the Church is run.

The screenplay by Peter Straughan, who defies his spotty track record (The Snowman, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Goldfinch), deftly establishes a few potential pope-elects and what they are about. They include the frank and forward-thinking Bellini (a solid Stanley Tucci), the conservative Italian Tedesco (Sergio Castellitto), the divisive Tremblay (John Lithgow), and the popular and Africa’s potentially historic Adeyemi (Lucian Msamati). There is also an eleventh-hour possibility in Cardinal Benitez (Carlos Diehz), whose very existence comes as a disarming surprise to the congregation. Overseeing the election with cunning calculation and public calmness is Cardinal Thomas Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes), who repeatedly attracts votes while claiming, to decreasing believability, to have no interest in himself becoming the next Pope.

In its structure, Conclave recalls 12 Angry Men, Sidney Lumet’s towering, talky 1957 drama set almost entirely within the confines of a sweltering murder trial jury room. Like that masterpiece, Berger’s film plays with evolving perceptions and shifting sentiments. We are never sure who will emerge as the new pope, but we sure as heck care as the drama plays out and scandals take shape to disqualify the different contenders.

Ralph fiennes gives a tour-de-force performance as cardinal thomas lawrence, the so-called "manager" meant to oversee a papal election in edward berger's "conclave. "

Lawrence is our supremely compelling access point, allowing Fiennes to command the screen here like few have ever before done so. Getting a read on our protagonist is a delightful challenge. Is this so-called “manager” a grand puppet master, shining a light on the reasons that others could not assume the church’s highest position? Is he a dark horse whose private discouraging of votes for him is some form of reverse psychology? Whatever the case, Fiennes is as magnetic and nuanced as he’s ever been.

It’s the kind of performance that you could easily imagine yielding an Academy Award, something you might be surprised to discover that Fiennes has never won. In fact, it’s been nearly thirty years since his mere two nominations as the lead of 1996’s Best Picture winner The English Patient and a supporting actor in 1993’s Best Picture Schindler’s List. In the decades since those World War II epics, Fiennes has never been hard up for fulfilling high-profile work. He has managed to succeed in a great variety of mainstream and art cinema: four Harry Potter movies, three James Bonds, both Clash and Wrath of the Titans. If pressed to choose a favorite performance, I’m sure that many would point to his fundamentally different work in two dissimilar but widely beloved comedies, as effete protagonist M. Gustave in Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel and the foul-mouthed ruthless assassin Harry in Martin McDonagh’s In Bruges.

Oscar wins that feel like overdue lifetime achievement honors do sometimes occur (e.g. Julianne Moore in Still Alice) and Fiennes’ massive and mostly terrific body of work undoubtedly warrants such recommendation. But his performance in Conclave is outstanding enough that it could well win without any further consideration of his career at large. While I’ve still got a handful of potential contenders to see, the only work at this lofty height that I’ve seen this year is Colman Domingo in Sing Sing, which happens to be the year’s only other release to earn such an enthusiastic recommendation for me.

Cardinals lawrence (ralph fiennes) and bellini (stanley tucci) share some much-needed fresh air in the vatican city thriller "conclave. "

Conclave is not a film you should see as preparation for the Academy Awards or out of any kind of obligation, but as powerful cinema and drama of the highest order. The film’s PG rating from the MPA is both highly unusual and fitting. There truly is nothing by the ratings board’s standards to justify a stricter rating. And yet, encountering a rating that has become the de facto standard for even mild animated family films attached to a drama with almost exclusively adult appeal is richly ironic. We must return to the 1980s to find adult-oriented award winners carrying PG ratings: Chariots of Fire, Gandhi, Driving Miss Daisy. The first two of those predated the advent of PG-13. Conclave has little in common with those yesteryear honorees. It simply focuses on a group that doesn’t invoke profanity and whose moral lapses do not involve drugs, violence, or (onscreen) sex.

While it may make for a ridiculous ratings block (“thematic material and smoking”) that most of the target audience will pay no heed, Conclave‘s subject also gives it unique appeal. With secularity seemingly on an unending rise and faith-based cinema being a mostly embarrassing class of amateurish works, here is a major mainstream wide release that considers what contemporary life looks like for spiritual leaders. We think of the Catholic Church as one of the oldest and most traditional institutions in the world, but although sequestered, the cardinals of Conclave are not living in a bubble. Their political maneuverings are very much influenced by how the public will perceive their stances and statements. They vote by hand, with a Latin utterance and a folded paper ballot, but they exist in our world, housed in surprisingly state-of-the-art quarters with modern day amenities. These contrasts give the film a distinct, haunting atmosphere and real-world relevance regardless of your religious affiliations or lack thereof. Berger’s deliberate and spellbinding presentation maximizes details like these, rendering the film as full of intrigue as any prior political thriller.

I had the privilege of watching Conclave as the opening night showcase of the Twin Cities Film Fest, which runs through this weekend and is currently celebrating its fifteenth anniversary. Pre-show festivities extended the taut, reasonable two-hour feature to a somewhat epic length and did not at all pertain to the film at hand, beginning with a flash mob and proceeding to include some brief remarks from executives from the festival’s partners and the mayor of host city St. Louis Park. At a time when moviegoing feels like an endangered practice, it is rewarding to see and be part of a large and enthusiastic turnout. I can only hope the rest of the audience enjoyed the film as much as I did.

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