‘CONCLAVE’ A Punchy Papal Political Thriller and One of the Best of the Year

The Pope is dead. Cardinals from across the globe arrive in Rome, ready for an unknown period of sequester and deliberation wherein they must elect the future leader of the Catholic Church. The ceremony, known as a papal conclave, is amongst the most secretive and ancient election processes in the world. The doors and windows are secured, shuttered, and locked. The flow of information in and out of the Sistine Chapel limited to billows of chimney smoke. It is here that Edward Berger’s papal political thriller, Conclave, smoothes its vestments and edges its daggers to deliver a sharp-tongued battle of worshipful wits.

Riddled with religious political intrigue and rousing dialogue, courtesy of Peter Straughan’s erudite and perfectly prickly script, Conclave exists in the tradition of masterfully-crafted political thrillers, in harmony with works like Succession and House of Cards, though its lexicon is decidedly more restrained, less colorful. Delivered by a cast of faithful thespians, including Ralph Fiennes proving once again that he is amongst our greatest working actors, the dialogue crackles and soars, elevating Conclave to near heavenly heights.

Fiennes stars as Dean Lawrence, dear friend of the deceased Pope, whose faith has seen its own challenges of late. He’s responsible for overseeing the detail-rich administration of the conclave, left to navigate the intricacies of the process, working across languages and alliances to ensure that their ancient procedures are followed to a T – all while mourning the loss of his mentor and friend. On one side of the equation lies pope hopeful Cardinal Bellini (Stanley Tucci), a modernist who believes that the church should embrace progress, including the involvement of women in the more leadership roles within the church, and change with the times. Newcomer Benitez (Carlos Diehz), a Cardinal secretly serving in the religiously-fraught lands of Kabul, brings a worldly perspective to his side’s pleas for peace and progress – one steeped in reality, not bookish theism.

Across the aisle, two contenders, Adeyemi (Lucian Msamati) and Tedesco (Sergio Castellitto), maintain that tradition and isolationism should win out over all other considerations. To many, this means erasing 60 years of progressive stances, reentering the dark ages and delivering a chilling blow to the faith. Complicating matters, middle of the aisle candidate Tremblay (John Lithgow), blessed with a modest share of supporters, seems to have some unseemly skeletons in his closet. It turns out, he is not the only one.

Through a series of votes, the liberal contingent and the conservative factions battle for the future of Catholicism’s soul. Their embattled positions on gay marriage, divorce, and tolerance of other religions are weighed as heavily as their public image, particularly important following the string of sexual abuse cases swept under the rug by the church not twenty years ago. Beneath these public battles lays private ambitions. Conclave squares its contenders off in a series of crackling tête-à-têtes where Straughan’s prowess as an actor’s director becomes as vivid and realized as Michelangelo’s Renaissance scenes etched on the ceiling above.

Straughan’s vision electrifies in his ability to cut against expectation, layering its contentious dramatics with meaningful meditations on faith, and unexpectedly funny vignettes. Conclave finds comedy in the little moments wherein the cardinals, draped in conservative tradition, interact with modern technology, making themselves little Keurig espressos or vaping. The escalating drama of the election and the trickle of insider information, each instance of which has vast impacts on the candidate’s odds to winning out, becomes its own little chaotic comedy of errors.

The craft is further elevated by Volker Bertelmann’s tension-wracked score, which magnifies the political tension and infighting, underscoring every conversation by its likely motivation by self-interest and Machiavellian machinations. These may be men of God but they are still inextricably men: flawed, pious, ambitious, calculated. Go figure that the only one who can break through the spell of division has their own hidden, though innocent, secret, one rooted in an idea central to Conclave: certainty is fundamentally the antithesis of faith. Remain curious and have faith: Conclave is one of the year’s best.

CONCLUSION: Led by a masterful turn from the always-reliable Ralph Fiennes, ‘Conclave’ is a crackling actors’ showcase forging standout production elements with a best-of-year script. There’s a cool irony to the fact that this – one of the most adult-oriented films of the year – is only rated PG. Truly heavenly stuff.