Intentional or not, Conclave’s release date—just before a monumental presidential election in the United States—lends an immediacy and relevance the film would not otherwise have. The vote depicted in the movie will determine the new pope, but the questions faced by the electors are familiar ones. How much can we trust a candidate? Must we choose the “least worst” option or should we stick to our standards and support a candidate even if they have no chance of winning? Should any single person have this much power?
Religion is politics; just ask anyone who’s experienced the governing machinations of a denomination. But religion is also, of course, so much more. And to Conclave’s credit, it’s attuned to both of these realities in equally compelling ways. Based on the novel by Robert Harris, whose book has been adapted by screenwriter Peter Straughan and director Edward Berger, this is a potboiler with spiritual principles, a crisis-of-faith drama full of courtroom intrigue. It’s quite fun, without being frivolous.
Ralph Fiennes stars as Cardinal Lawrence, Dean of the College of Cardinals. Lawrence is responsible for sequestering his colleagues as part of the papal conclave and overseeing the elaborate, ostentatious (and politically tricky) voting process. The leading candidates to be the next pope include a vociferous conservative (Sergio Castellitto) who is opposed to recent reforms in the Catholic Church; a soft-spoken liberal (Stanley Tucci) intent on pushing those reforms further; a Nigerian (Lucian Msamati) whose views refuse to fit neatly into those Western categories; and a calculating Canadian (John Lithgow) whose positions are hard to pin down. On the edges is Sister Agnes (Isabella Rossellini), quietly serving the cardinals’ meals but watching and listening intently to the various goings-on.
Fiennes holds the center, delivering a delicate performance that’s trickier than it first appears. Struggling with his faith, Lawrence was on the precipice of resigning when the sitting pope suddenly died. Determined to manage the conclave with integrity as his last official act, Lawrence nevertheless gets drawn into the web of secrets, rumors, and betrayals that unfold. Wearing his ornamented vestments with a weary stoop, as if they weighed hundreds of pounds, Lawrence is in the grand tradition of religious movie characters who are burdened by their belief (from Ethan Hawke’s Ernst Toller in First Reformed to Claude Laydu’s Priest of Ambricourt in Diary of a Country Priest). Fiennes adds a layer of self-deception, however, that makes this performance distinct. His best moment—which I won’t detail here—involves Lawrence’s scales falling from his eyes, to both his and our surprise.
Of the supporting players, it’s not any of the lead candidates who resonates most, but instead Carlos Diehz as Cardinal Benitez. Having served in far-off, troubled places, from Baghdad to Kabul, Benitez is new to the conclave proceedings and indeed the Vatican as a whole. He’s something of a naif, but Diehz—a newcomer to acting—gives him an untroubled air of authenticity, as if it’s not he who is the stranger, but his surroundings that are strange (and worth questioning). Benitez is asked to pray before the cardinals’ opening communal meal and after his first few, familiar lines the men sit down to eat, assuming he’s done. But Benitez continues, offering genuine thanks for the food and for the sisters who have prepared it. What was perfunctory has become meaningful. Needless to say, Benitez throws a wrinkle in the conclave’s proceedings, simply by his presence.
Given the massive scale and ambitious visuals of Berger’s previous film, 2022’s All Quiet on the Western Front, it might seem strange that he’s boxed himself in with these cardinals, behind the locked doors and lowered shades of the conclave. Yet he uses that limitation to his advantage, depicting the cardinals themselves—all adorned in the same way, often moving in sync—as intriguingly abstract patterns. At the same time, their conformity resonates with the theology outlined in Lawrence’s welcome homily: that “certainty”—be it in what we believe or what we wear—is a danger to living faith.
If that sounds too heady, be assured that Conclave never forgets to be an entertainment—right down to a last-minute twist. Yet even that has a deeper relevance to it, which I wouldn’t dare spoil. This is a movie that has the courage of its own convictions, but also the playfulness to wear them lightly on its ridiculously embroidered sleeves.
(10/31/2024)
