By Elias Savada.
Berger’s take on the Catholic Church makes Conclave a thoroughly enjoyable thrill ride.”
The Pope is dead; long live the Pope‘s secrets.
Papal riddles abound in this most peculiar political page-turner set in the Vatican, and the hunt for answers through every nook and cranny also finds a closet filled with a few interesting twists.
There is more than a casual resemblance between Conclave, the exciting adaptation of bestselling author Robert Harris’s 2016 thriller about the castle intrigue behind selecting a new Pontiff, and the mud-slinging and backroom dealings of the current American Presidential race. You can easily compare the cardinals vying for the top job in the Catholic Church with the characters maneuvering about the crazed election race here. The cunning conservative, the old school extrovert, the affable centrist with a ghost in his closet, the Bernie Sanders liberal. Toss in a dark horse (no Ralph Nader here this year, just Jill Stein), played by Carlos Diehz, and that makes up most of the contenders.
Ralph Fiennes leads the incredible ensemble, headlined by a mostly male cast (this is the Vatican, after all), with Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, Sergio Castellitto, and Lucian Msamati, and a nod to Isabella Rossellini as a nun sadly manacled by script necessities.
Fiennes plays Cardinal Lawrence, a mild-mannered yet determined confidant to the beloved Pope, whose unexpectedly death near the start of the film sets in motion three days covered by the story, where just over 100 eligible cardinals (i.e., under the age of 80) will vote in a successor. Lawrence, as dean of the College of Cardinals, oversees the secretive process of selective the church’s new leader, expressing his own reluctance to take on the Number One spot. He’s happy as the manager, without the pomp and circumstance. There are outside agitations happening in Italy as the proceedings move along, but they clerics are sequestered, locked in the innards of the Vatican, with no access to outside influences that could affect the outcome. This forces Lawrence into some unorthodox extracurricular activities.
Both Oscar®-nominated director Edward Berger (for Best Adapted Screenplay for his intense retelling of the 1930 German classic All Quiet on the Western Front, which did win Best International Feature) and writer Peter Straughan (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) teamed up with their players not at the Vatican (which does not allow filming onsite), but at the next best thing – Rome’s legendary Cinecitta studios. Production designer Suzie Davies’ recreation is dead-on, especially the Sistine Chapel, the Vatican’s voting booth. As filmed by cinematographer Stéphane Fontaine and cut together by editor Nick Emerson, there’s both an air of authenticity and intensity as this political thriller unfolds. Beautiful framing to capture the grandeur, yet an abundance of medium and close-up shots that bring you smack into the action. It’s hard to not be absorbed into the intrigue. There are some breathtaking moments enhanced by the deep red/scarlet and gray/black costume motif by Lisy Christl accompanied by dozens of white umbrellas that feel quite Hitchockian.
While not a great film, like the director’s extraordinary 2022 take on Erich Maria Remarque’s World War I novel, it is a tense tale that doesn’t disappoint or flail about during its two-hour frame. Think Knives Out or Agatha Christie stories set in a different kind of locked room.
As the conclave’s tallies are taken, alliances rise and fall amongst the cardinals. Agendas are written, re-written, then shattered, all the while keeping viewers on the edge of their seats, while they look for (possibly) divine guidance and the outside world awaits their decision with a plume of white smoke from the Vatican chimney.
While Fiennes has a good chance at an Oscar nod here, all the performances shine in mostly understated tones – the lone exception to unassuming nature of the community being the Trumpian right-winger Tedesco (Castellitto), who Lawrence fears the most if elected.
Berger’s take on the Catholic Church makes Conclave a thoroughly enjoyable thrill ride. Hang onto your zucchettos!
Elias Savada is a movie copyright researcher, critic, craft beer geek, and avid genealogist based in Bethesda, Maryland. He helps program the Spooky Movie International Movie Film Festival, and previously reviewed for Film Threat and Nitrate Online. He is an executive producer of the horror film German Angst and the documentary Nuts! He co-authored, with the late David J. Skal, Dark Carnival: the Secret World of Tod Browning (a revised edition in paperback is forthcoming from University of Minnesota Press).