As if we didn’t have enough elections to
worry about.
The premise for Conclave is
something I would expect to see as a limited series drama more than a feature
film in this day and age. And that’s not entirely a bad thing -indeed I think
it could make for a very compelling show. But I am glad that Peter Straughan
chose to adapt this novel by Robert Harris as a movie, because it is the less
likely route for a (mostly) serious adult drama about the politics that shape
the Vatican. It’s a world and a subject that isn’t often depicted, even within
media largely about the Catholic Church. The relative novelty alone makes it
intriguing, the commitment to its mystery and conspiracy downright gripping.
It is the first film directed by Edward
Berger after the surprise runaway Oscar-winning success that was his All Quiet on the Western Front, and it marks his English-language debut. Berger
largely defers to the strengths of the script, which cultivates a cast of
shrewd and fascinating characters vying to be the next Pope in light of his
death. Ralph Fiennes’ English Cardinal Lawrence, a man experiencing some crisis
of faith, is chosen by the late pontiff to oversee the papal conclave as Dean of
the College of Cardinals, in which there are several parties that have mounted
their own quiet campaigns to be elected. To his chagrin, Lawrence himself even
becomes a nominee thanks in large part to Benitez (Carlos Diehz), the
Archbishop of Kabul newly made a Cardinal at the last minute by the deceased
pope and who quickly becomes unusually loyal to Lawrence.
The political lines are cut sharply within
the conclave. Lawrence, though publicly required to be impartial, is
ideologically aligned with Bellini (Stanley Tucci) of the liberal wing of the
college, who seeks to make the church more progressive. On the opposite end is
the far-right Tedesco (Sergio Castellitto) looking to return the church to
extreme traditionalism. The other conservative figures in contention are
Adeyemi (Lucian Msamati), and Tremblay (John Lithgow), both with their own
bases of support and shady pasts.
Lawrence investigates each of these figures
in the hopes of preventing the papacy falling into corrupt hands, his efforts
gradually whittling down the list of serious contenders through an unusually extensive
conclave where no one cardinal can reach the voting threshold to win. And it’s
important that Berger approached all this from an irreligious lens, something
which renders the movie both more accessible for non-Catholics and potentially
less contentious with Catholics. It is, to pardon the pun, very much a broad church
of a movie -one that doesn’t dwell much in the doctrine and theology of the
church but that alludes to those things with fairness as simply the foundation
for the political philosophies of everyone in play.
What’s also relatively universal is how
each candidate lines up with someone we can recognize in other political power
plays, and we can identify the strategy of how those politics play out.
Lawrence at one point bemoans having to support the ‘least worst’ option -in
this case Tremblay- against the extremism of Tedesco, and doesn’t that
sentiment feel so resonant right about now? More importantly it’s just very
engaging; the drama of these naturally pious men, the reveals of their varied
positions and schemes, and how they are taken down. In that commitment to
neutrality, Berger and Straughan ensure that almost nobody is entirely
guiltless. All the while Lawrence is pressured more and more into a corner he
wants out of. By all appearances he is the one truly just person involved, but
Berger keeps his intentions clouded and through other characters challenges him
on a hidden ambition -he is after all shrewd and underhanded enough to break
the papal seal on the Pope’s chamber for instance, searching for proof of a
testified last minute directive.
Still, Lawrence attempts to suppress any
ambition and ego, Fiennes letting that discomfort bubble beneath the surface,
sometimes diverted into composed anger and frustration (and just one real
outburst). The movie benefits certainly from this such calibre in its cast.
Tucci plays excellently the frank firebrand while Lithgow inhabits well the groveling
defensiveness of the Vatican's Grima Wormtongue. Diehz makes a sizable
impression as the eventual key power broker, and Isabella Rossellini naturally
shines in the part of a caretaker nun that seems entirely too small and
relatively inconsequential for her.
Berger's direction is fairly inauspicious,
especially compared to All Quiet on the Western Front, though his choice
to refrain from setting much of the movie within the gaudy contours of the
church's best known architecture is a sharp one. So many scenes are set in
backrooms and pale halls and the quarters of the various cardinals, which are
fairly naked and dim in heavy contrast to how the men themselves are obligated
to present. A major altercation takes place in the refectory which is near
indistinguishable from a prison cafeteria -I don't know that Berger intends any
analogy there, but it is curious to think about. It is indeed not the only bit
of prison imagery that shows up in the film, the cardinals often appear to be
confined with their freedom limited, especially in the context of the highly
secretive conclave. It is a tangible tether to the starkness of his last film,
made especially clear by the time a car bomb outside the cathedral explodes in
the one dramatic moment of action; and though not so potent or passionate, Conclave
does drip with conviction -especially as pertaining to both the maneuvering and
one moment of earnest excoriation in the last act.
There is a baffling twist at the end of the
film, shockingly out of left field and yet dramatically underwhelming, for it
doesn’t change the narrative or the themes all that much. Indeed, it is meant
to uplift them, albeit in a muddied incongruent way that largely feels like a
random means of getting across a well-intentioned message. As such, the movie
leaves you a little puzzled.
But it is not disorienting in any way, much
as it may horrify the most conservative of Catholic traditionalists -the Tedescos
in the audience. Its tone is that of peace and optimism that does translate at
the end of a very solid and compelling thriller. Conclave is the kind of
movie that would be a modest hit in another era and potentially a minor awards
contender. Not too long ago I watched Norman Jewison’s Agnes of God, and
it is not too dissimilar in subject and effect. Berger presents the material
cogently, the cast is wonderful, and the setting and contexts intriguingly
unique. Honestly, I would still be curious by the concept on television. But
thank god it got to be a movie first.
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