“Conclave” is all about hushed conversations in dark rooms.
One of the most important locations in a film that beautifully recreates echoing church halls and the dramatic, high ceilings of the Sistine Chapel is a simple auditorium; a bright light shining down on the cardinals seated there, the rest of the room draped in shadow. It’s here where a few men are trying to decide who should become the next pope.
The worry is that the brash traditionalist Tedesco (Sergio Castellitto) will defeat the paragon of the more liberal faction, Bellini (Stanley Tucci). The men in this room – including Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes), who has been tasked with running this election – think it imperative that Bellini wins. Mostly because he doesn’t want it. “No sane man would want the papacy,” Bellini says.
It’s a familiar adage, although perhaps used in an unfamiliar setting; the person who does not seek power is usually the best person to wield it. “Conclave,” directed by Edward Berger and written by Peter Straughan, based on the novel by Robert Harris, meditates on many ideas like this, ideas that feel poignantly on the nose in today’s climate – there are also numerous conversations regarding the papal election that center around picking the lesser of two evils, the least objectionable candidate, etc. It’s a political thriller dressed up in a cardinal hat, but one that’s a lot more fun to languish in than our current political state. “Conclave” isn’t reinventing the wheel, but is an eminently watchable and entertaining parable about the perils of ambition and what happens when grown men get a little too big for their britches.
From the moment the titular conclave – the assembly of cardinals to elect a new pope – is about to begin, wrenches are being thrown all over the place. Tedesco is late to arrive and slinging barbs left and right, each one more bigoted than the last. A new cardinal no one has ever heard of before – Cardinal Benitez (Carlos Diehz), doing his mission in Kabul, no less – shows up out of nowhere to join the proceedings. And Lawrence learns that in his final hours, the late pope may have fired one of the cardinals in contention for the papacy – the person who tells him, though, wasn’t actually there for that conversation. And may have a drinking problem.
In short, things are a mess. And that mess, the petty disagreements, the inability of grown men to put aside their striving and differences for a greater goal, is really what makes “Conclave” a joy to watch. Our own political landscape is so fraught, so entirely not amusing. But watching a similar thing happen in a different arena, one where the stakes are still high but don’t hit quite as close to home, feels like a bit of a relief.
“Conclave” is peppered with shots of groups of cardinals paired off smoking in courtyards, cardinals at lunch sectioned off by country or language, cardinals speaking in coded words about other cardinals that they don’t like. When one cardinal has a charged interaction with a nun at lunch, his shot at becoming pope abruptly ends – it doesn’t matter what the real story is, just that everyone knows there is a story to tell. Tedesco (Castellitto having a marvelous time playing villain) spends half his time dramatically swishing around his red cape, taking hits off of his vape while he takes shots at his peers, or watches others implode around him. The drama is palpable, the sting of personal vendettas and biases impossible to ignore, even with the specter of God looming over them.
Lawrence has little time for all this – or so he may think. In his determination to have this conclave go off without a hitch and present a united Catholic front to the rest of the world, he gets mired in duty and ambition, the cross-section of which forms the film’s most interesting point. Lawrence doesn’t want to be pope – he hopes to resign after all this is over – but an impromptu opening homily earns him a few votes of his own in the first ballot, perhaps stealing a few from his friend, Bellini.
This turn of events stirs a chance in Lawrence, however sure he thought he was of his intentions. “Conclave,” then becomes a look at how a person starts to see themselves as predestined – as ordained by God, or whoever you will, to lead. Fiennes plays this transition masterfully, the exhaustion and humility that lines his face turning to something more fiery, his uncertainty in the church transferring to a concrete certainty in himself that could prove beneficial or detrimental in equal measure. The line between duty and ambition, between doing something for the greater good or because it will increase your position, becomes blurred.