Conclave (2024 | UK/USA | 120 minutes | Edward Berger)
The Holy Throne of Saint Peter is vacant. Edward Berger churns a satisfying political potboiler in the Vatican as the titular conclave of Cardinals sequester themselves to select its next occupant. No one wants to admit they want the job, everyone has an agenda, and secrets hide in the dark corners of each man’s heart.
Berger’s Oscar-nominated All Quiet on the Western Front was a dreary affair, drained of color, and overwhelmed by the grim fate of its idealistic young soldiers. Here, even among the spartan lives of the clergy, the mode is far more opulent in its depiction of the Vatican and the ceremonial garb of these secret traditions. Still, pairing again with composer Volker Bertelmann, the sparse yet assaultive soundtrack to communicate the jarring uncertainty that arises amid the barely controlled chaos of that ensues when a rare opening occurs for the world’s most infallible job.
What makes the film so delicious is how zealously its all-star cast feasts on this tasty material. Each contender for the big job represents an archetype of a modern church trying to remain a monolith while internal wars rage within. As the American Cardinal Stanley Tucci is the liberal dreamer of a more inclusive church who refuses to ally with John Lithgow’s charming Canadian centrist insider. They should be natural allies against the Nigerian Cardinal (Lucian Msamati) who would be groundbreaking geographically, but is no progressive. All the reformers find themself pitted against a proudly regressive Venetian firebrand (Sergio Castellitto). Rather than dress them in exact replicas, costume designer Lisy Christl upped the opulence of their identical robes and distinguishes each character through meaningful accessories, making the film sparkle with intriguing details in every shot.
Revelations and suspicions swirl; a surprise cardinal appears at the last minute to make for an unexpected fly in the ointment; and a nun played by Isabella Rossellini says more with pointed looks than most actors do with pages of juicy monologue. Everyone in the stacked cast cooks, but it’s Ralph Fiennes’s show with a performance for the ages. We watch as his dutiful Dean of the College, cursed with the gift of being a great manager, becomes hollowed by the weight of his ongoing crisis of faith alongside his commitment to protocol. Its a nuanced portrayal amidst the fireworks of his supporting cast, that finds this servant of the faith attempting to do detective work while navigating the role of herding a hundred opinionated deadlocked priests with humility as they voting their way from deadlock to the the eventual white smoke of a new pope.
With a script adapted by Peter Straughan (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) based on the Robert Harris’s bestselling novel, the film moves like an airport page-turner. With heightened drama of ambition, suspicions running high, challenges to deeply held faith, and shocking revelations dropping in shadowy corridors, it’s the best kind of ridiculous. As the priests battle it out the political intrigue, mysterious backstories, and a voyeuristic glimpses into secret rituals make for a feverish entry in the canon of persistent liberal fantasies about how, against incredibly long odds, an ancient incalcitrant institution might finally change.
Conclave arrives in theaters October 25.
An previous version of this review ran when the film had its world premiere at the 2024 Telluride Film Festival. Lead image courtesy Focus Features.