Before All Quiet On The Western Front, German director Edward Berger was a little-known journeyman on the European arthouse circuit and a director-for-hire in Hollywood’s television assembly line.
His adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s classic World War I novel was an unexpected and staggering success and won four Academy Awards, a feat that tied it with classics like Parasite, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and Fanny and Alexander as the most successful non-English language films in Oscar history. It also catapulted him to the ranks of premiere international directors.
Rather than being a stealth contender, his new film comes decked with prestige, pedigree and expectations, and Berger doesn’t disappoint. Conclave is a drolly entertaining papal drama, cast with big names, bursting with portent, and smart, worldly politicking that will please underserved adult audiences.
The release timing of Conclave is either fortuitous or wholly intentional, as it is, at heart, an election drama full of backstabbing, vicious rhetoric, political maneuvering, targeted leaks and oppo dumps. With the sudden passing of the Pope, all Roman Catholic Cardinals, the senior-most members of the clergy, arrive in the Vatican, from archdioceses around the world, to elect their new leader. It falls upon Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes), the Dean of the College of Cardinals and second in command to the Pope, to preside over the conclave.
The election must proceed according to centuries-old laws—the Cardinals are sequestered and quarantined from the outside world, must live together in the same building, eat in a dining room together, and vote in the Sistine Chapel. Contenders emerge in the form of liberal Cardinals Bellini (Stanley Tucci), Tremblay (John Lithgow) and Lawrence himself.
The conservative candidates are Cardinals Tedesco (Sergio Castellitto) and Adeyemi (Lucian Msamati), the latter of whom, if elected, would become the first Black Pope. The 120 Cardinals must keep casting ballots until a contender acquires the requisite 2/3rd majority.
Peter Straughan (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy) faithfully adapts Robert Harris’s eponymous book—a tony, elevated ‘airport novel,’ much like his The Ghost Writer and The Officer and The Gentleman, which Roman Polanski made into excellent movies. The election plot offers built-in suspense, and the subplots braided around it deepen the intrigue.
Cardinal Adeyemi’s past indiscretions threaten to unravel his candidacy. A financial scandal surfaces that might engulf several of the principal players. And then there’s Benitez (Carlos Diehz) from the Archdiocese of Kabul in Afghanistan, who is taking part in the conclave, but there’s no record of his appointment as Cardinal. There’s also an insurrectionist protest movement outside the walls that might threaten the gathering.
Conclave, in ways large and small, resembles an Agatha Christie whodunnit in form and function. While not a murder, Conclave does begin with a death, centers on an array of characters harboring secrets assembled under fraught circumstances, and moves towards a key revelation: the identity of the new Pope.
Conclave is set in contemporary times, but such is the splendor of the elaborate robes worn by the Roman Catholic clergy and the magnificence of the Vatican interiors that it might as well be a period piece. Berger and DP Stéphane Fontaine have fun framing these grandiose settings, considerably amping up the pomp and circumstance of what is essentially a chamber drama about middle-aged men bickering.
Oscar-winner Volker Bertelmann further ratches up the drama with his nervy, propulsive score. With so much overwrought melodrama, audiences might feel short-changed in the number of twists and revelations and might desire more of them. At 120 minutes, the story feels a bit sparse in incident, though Conclave is never less than engrossing.
Conclave is aided by a cast of storied actors, all contributing fine, rigorous performances, including Isabella Rosellini, who plays a nun. Although peripheral to the main plot, she makes the most of her one notable scene. Fiennes isn’t particularly stretched by the part but is unyieldingly, unimpeachably excellent.
Viewers hoping for a devastating takedown of the Catholic Church or its scandals and practices will likely walk away disappointed. Conclave paints a rather progressive portrait of this often patriarchal, inflexible and opaque institution. The events during the finale that resolve the crisis are also too on-the-nose, pat and pandering. A major climatic speech is like a bingo card of liberal pieties.
Even so, this is well-judged, well-made adult entertainment, and not without a sense of humor. A breathtaking coda will leave viewers cackling, though also a bit disappointed that it doesn’t take its gambit all the way. That might have indeed tipped Conclave into the realm of parody and put it in the crosshairs of current culture wars. It would also have given Conclave some bite. But Berger and Straughan are content to settle for decorum, a move that does make Conclave palatable and accessible to a broad audience.