Movie Review: ‘Conclave'
Updated With A Tribute To Pope Francis
AUTHOR’S NOTE: My review of “Conclave” was published November 5, 2024, shortly after the theatrical release and the day of the U.S. Presidential election. I republish today in anticipation of the May 7, 2025 Papal Conclave.
100 days of Donald Trump has forced me to develop an emotional regulation that substitutes quiet resolve for uncontrolled bursts of outrage. If I wrote this review today I would focus not on the malignant narcissist in the White House, but rather the great man who sat in the Chair of St. Peter.
I was married in a Roman Catholic Church but I am not Catholic. That said, my respect for Pope Francis, whom I privately refer to as “Pope Awesome,” is as deep as the foaming waters.
Pope Francis championed global peace, environmental issues, social justice, and Church reform. He addressed 21st Century challenges like poverty, refugees, women’s rights, and unchecked capitalism.
Pope Francis represents the polar opposite of the corrupted, weaponized Christianity that abuses and persecutes the vulnerable in God’s name.
I considered what Francis might say to the misguided souls who are causing such misery in the world. I found what I think may be fitting words, and I offer them as modest tribute to a good and holy man.
“Serve one another humbly in love.” Galatians 5:13
“Conclave” begins moments after the pope has died. We watch as nervous priests prepare for the selection of a new pope, a process under which the College of Cardinals will be sequestered until the Chair of Saint Peter is once again occupied.
The cardinals have separated into two opposing camps: a liberal, cosmopolitan faction that is gay-friendly, ecumenical, and willing to update its views on human reproduction; it is challenged by a cohort of hardline conservatives, openly racist, contemptuous of Muslim “vermin,” and advocating a return to the Latin Mass.
Although today’s (November 5, 2024) presidential election has none of the baroque ceremony of a papal conclave, its gravity feels crushing. I need not describe the knife’s edge that has been pressing against our collective throat.
“Conclave’s” carefully paced plot unfolds amidst a cast of characters including the liberal Cardinal Bellini (Stanley Tucci), his hardline counterpart Tedesco (Sergio Castellitto), the ambitious Tremblay (John Lithgow), and the Dean of the College of Cardinals who must guide the papal selection, Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes).
We catch only glimpses of the individual crises of faith at the heart of the Robert Harris’s source novel as the corrupting influences of fear, sex, ambition, and money insinuate their way into the selection process.
Much of the action takes place on the Ralph Fiennes’ face as he confronts his doubts while challenging the smug certainty of those who insist God’s will coincides with their current political ambitions.
If I needed a reminder of the certainty of fools and fanatics, I got it first thing this morning (November 4, 2024) (below). Just as Trump promises to ignore centuries of scientific progress and (once again) invite pestilence into our land, “Conclave’s” hardliners demand a return to a time when they were treated as God’s messengers on earth to whom the faithful must be prepared to give their lives.
Act 2 begins as the cardinals have been placed under lock and key and gather to listen to Dean Lawrence’s homily. He says:
Certainty is the great enemy of unity. Certainty is the deadly enemy of tolerance. If there was only certainty and no doubt there would be no mystery and therefore no need for faith. . . Let us pray that God will grant us a pope who doubts.
I will confess (see what did there?) the crescendo of a decade’s worth of election dissonance affected my impression of this beautifully shot, wonderfully acted film. “Conclave” portrays the critical, determining moment preceding an historical cycle and I couldn’t help but feel the weight of that moment now upon us.
Volker Bertelmann’s dramatic, orchestral score and lingering, sumptuous camera shots of Vatican City are important characters in “Conclave;” expect to see Academy Award nominations for Cinematography and Best Original Score.
I am not Roman Catholic and the film’s fascination with ritual (the destruction of the Ring of the Fisherman, the sewing of the ballots with red thread, the elaborate robing) did little to create gravitas in an otherwise compelling story. I acknowledge, of course, the possibility that’s my problem rather than the film’s failure and others may find such Byzantine rites compelling.
Plots and betrayals are uncovered, ballots are counted, and Fiennes’s Dean Lawrence guides us to the film’s unexpected ending (I won’t give it away) which represents a triumph for what Abraham Lincoln once called “the better angels of our nature.”
On this day, the American republic Lincoln once preserved will either endure or sink into the abyss of authoritarianism and kakistocracy. I will be up late tonight to see what color smoke I can expect to see on Capitol Hill in January.
I'll confess I didn't want to see Conclave until this review. Thank you! Also learned what kakistocracy means. Bonus!