Conclave

• Directed by Edward Berger
• August 30, 2024 (Telluride) / October 25, 2024 (US) / November 29, 2024 (UK)
• Based on the 2016 novel Conclave by Robert Harris

A cardinal organizing a conclave to elect the next pope discovers secrets and scandals about the major candidates. The secrets were not well hidden

If it hadn’t been for the passing of Pope Francis, I would’ve had absolutely no interest in Conclave. I’ve heard bits and pieces and it sounded like something designed specifically as Oscar bait based on a book but not particularly interesting. 

I am a fan of economy of storytelling. Get to the point. Keep your narrative tight and don’t waste time. Some extra can build tension or set the stage but when it goes on too long it becomes tedious or boring. There are plenty of shots with sinister or tense music along with the beautiful architecture or the garments of the Catholic cardinals but that contain no story. It just draws out this movie into two hours when if it had focused more on storytelling it would have barely hit 90 minutes. There is a serious amount of excess dialogue in Conclave that doesn’t really help the uninitiated understand the concept of a conclave or how they work. You either dive into it and explain it or you just have the characters experience it.

I picked up on one element pretty quickly. Cardinal Benitez (Carlos Diehz) was significant to the whole film rather than just an unexpected hiccup in the process. When an unexpected character shows up that is almost a given but they do little to hide that he is very important. Benitez his health concerns keep getting brought up. The story would be progressing and then they stop to talk about it.

Benitez has a condition that required a trip to Switzerland. Once they made the Switzerland connection I realize this was going to get a bit lazy. Lazy can be okay but you need to make it entertaining. It felt straight out of an 80s TV show trying to be topical.

I just didn’t think the reveal of the African bishop having a love child with a nun was entertaining. It was almost a given considering the heavy Switzerland hint. And maybe even a little racist on their part. 

I do give them points for using ‘simony’ in this movie. I haven’t heard that in decades and never outside of a church setting. Then again, there is not much reason to use that outside of a church setting or in general.

The story is about bringing the Church into the modern era. Cardinal Goffredo Tedesco (Sergio Castellitto) is a traditionalist and gets generally framed as one of the worst options largely because he likes the Latin Mass and is generally less liberal. Any of the characters that want a more old school Catholicism are framed as wrong for the papacy in some fashion.

For a mystery thriller there is not much mystery. The clues, such as they are, smack you upside the head like a wiffle bat from an older sibling. Important information would only have been more obvious if they had a chyron running across a screen that announced “Important!” Things are presented without a deft hand.

Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, Sergio Castellitto, and Isabella Rossellini along with all the other cast give acceptable to fine performances but that is not enough to help the weakness of the film with a resolution that defies logic. A cardinal that nobody knew existed just by giving one single speech was able everyone to vote for him. He doesn’t do anything during the course of the film other than get a few mentions and pop in occasionally to remind you that he’s still there. You think they could do include a few scenes where he shakes a few figurative hands and kisses the same type of babies.

There are a random instances of terrorism that occurred near the conclave. You would think this might motivate individuals to vote for a more hard line person. Not so. Which doesn’t make sense. The authentic human reaction would not to go more liberal.

Cardinal Thomas Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) is the dean of the College of Cardinals and finds himself investing and easily uncovering most of the secrets. The big reveal comes when he confronts Benitez. Benitez and by extension those who made this seem to have confused his physical condition with some higher spiritual status. That is what the dialogue implied to me. Lawrence should’ve at least questioned that to clear it up.

That doesn’t mean Conclave is a bad movie. It just misses the mark on spirituality. What makes it a bad movie is that it’s a weak mystery whose answer is telegraphed well in advance of the revelation. That and there’s a great deal of padding to stretch out what should be a very short movie

The film tries to be an indictment of Catholicism and its doctrine and by default Catholics themselves. It’s better done than most I’ve seen recently but feels like someone with only a Sean Penn level understanding of Catholicism. Benitez and his appointment along with his choice of ‘Innocent’ is a bit too on the nose.

Conclave is a very short story with a very thin mystery stretched out into a very long movie. It’s message before narrative though not one of the worst examples of it. I’m sure this will please people who aren’t Catholic but if you’re Catholic you may not like it.