After spending his last film – 2022’s BAFTA-conquering take on All Quiet on the Western Front – face down in the mud, blood, and physical viscera of a filthy warzone, Edward Berger pulls a complete 180 in terms of milieu for his follow up, the gleamingly clean and serenely spiritual surrounds of the Vatican in Robert Harris adaptation Conclave. It’s a locale that fits him just as well as his World War 1 epic did, an old fashioned, craft and acting-forward thriller that looks and sounds great as it barrels through a compelling mystery plot fronted by a lot of very serious men with very serious faces.
Ralph Fiennes does a magnificent job in the lead role of Dean Thomas Lawrence (originally an Italian character in the book, but reimagined as English by Berger and writer Peter Straughan), who is in charge of overseeing the conclave as they vote on who should be the next pope following the death of the one currently serving. It’s a vote initially framed as a matter of faith and holy duty, but soon revealed to be just as petty, backstabbing, and politicking as any more conventional election as frontrunners emerge, each with their own sets of views, ambitions, and secrets.
In the more liberal-progressive camp himself, Lawrence struggles to find the balance between letting God figure it out and taking a more active role in canvasing for his ally and friend, Italian-American Aldo Bellini (Stanley Tucci). Meanwhile, conservative leaders emerge in the forms of the Italian traditionalist Tedesco (Sergio Castellitto) and Nigerian leader Adeyemi (Lucian Msamati), who is deeply opposed to tolerance of gays and women, and in the centre sits the openly careerist American, Tremblay (John Lithgow). Battle lines are drawn, and then further complicated by the arrival of a mysterious new Mexican cardinal who has specialised in dangerous warzone mission work, the most obviously Christ-like figure amongst this congregation.
The resulting power struggle is just eminently watchable, twists and reveals peppered at just the right moments (the whole thing is superbly well-paced), though there is one particular revelation that is genuinely berserk in a way that threatens to derail the story. It’s a misstep that can be forgiven/somewhat ignored though, and Berger and Straughan manage to wring thrills out of even the most seemingly mundane stuff, never letting the audience forget the global stakes of this papal election even when the obstacle in the way is something as simple as a jammed photocopier.
In aid of this task, Berger has been given an inherent gift in his Vatican setting. The monumental weight and history of the place, the contradictions of the Church’s capital’s splendour and ridiculousness, the incredible precision of design and colour; all are visual gifts which Berger makes great use of. Conclave looks great and maybe sounds even better, the breathing of the cardinals or swishing of the cassocks sometimes enveloping the soundscape, inescapable intimacy amidst all this grandeur. Berger knows when and how to play this spectacle for laughs, too. It’s funny and deeply humanising to watch these revered men of the cloth scroll on their phones or unpack their brightly-coloured plastic suitcases – even the staunch conservative Tedesco is constantly puffing on his vape.
It’s a great world to inhabit, and the cast fill it with both sprightly life and sombre gravitas. Fiennes is just fantastic, allowing age and tiredness to creep into Lawrence without ever fully relinquishing power and control (Conclave is, in general, very clever on how power is wielded by both individuals and institutions and how it waxes and wanes in unexpected ways), and Tucci and Msamati in particular offer great support.
If you’re coming to Conclave for a film or story to take a particular ‘stance’ on the Catholic Church or organised religion in general, this is not what it is offering. While the elements of faith are presented very earnestly, this is, at its heart, a political chamber piece that could have just as easily have played out in, say, the House of Commons or the US Senate. In picking the Vatican, though, Harris and, now, Berger get to surround the story with some of the most dramatic architecture in the world and put a bunch of brilliant actors in elaborate costumes that add an element of myth and magic to everything they do. It’s a great choice, a balance of seriousness and fun that makes Conclave easy to watch and hard to forget.
Jack Blackwell – Film Reviews 