Hitting theaters right before the US presidential election, I had little hope that Conclave would be anything but a completely areligious political thriller dressed in the drab of the Catholic Church. The trailer certainly seemed that way, and I just don’t care for most of those films. The context for a film ought to make sense, not be fetishized. And while there is a valid and true critique to the political systems that move most religious bodies in many of the areligious political thrillers set in religious atmospheres — Tarik Saleh did some competently and stylishly in Cairo Conspiracy — there is something missing from most of the these films that actually elevates the critique the (mostly liberal and secular) filmmakers (usually) intend to make. And that something missing is the contradiction of faith and doubt. Conclave, to my pleasant surprise, is a deep film of faith and hope, though, I suspect, it will ironically be tarnished by our country’s most important religious organizations for reasons quite obvious for those who’ve made it through the final “twist.”
The Holy Father is dead and the Catholic Church summons the cardinals for a conclave, a medieval tradition for electing the next pope. The first cardinal to reach a two-thirds majority will become the next pope, the most important figure in global Christianity and the head of a state. The dead Holy Father is a fictional one, though his agenda of reform and complexity certainly smells like Pope Francis. And, just like in real life, his conservative critics lead the opposition. Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) as the Dean of the College of Cardinals directs the conclave against his own wishes. He’s a man of faith and doubt, like the father in Mark 9:23-25, who proclaims to Jesus: “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” Fiennes gives the cardinal patience (but not too much), an introspective conscience, and a belief in the mystery of faith. Lawrence cares profoundly that the conclave elects the right man to the papacy, and he spends the entire film chasing down that cardinal.
But more than anything, he just wants to make sure the wrong man isn’t elected pope. One of the “wrong” men is Cardinal Tedesco (Sergio Castellitto), the Italian traditionalist whose diatribes sound a lot like Bishop Joseph Strickland (whom the real pope removed from his office.) He’s the kind of pastor JD Vance would love. Another conservative with influence is Cardinal Adeyemi (Lucian Msamati) from Nigeria. His short fuse and a sin from his past get in the way. Refreshingly, director Edward Berger doesn’t let the film fully condemn Adeyemi the way he does Tedesco, even if his views on topics like women in the church and homosexuality would frighten liberals. His temper, not his impropriety, rues his only chance.
The American liberal Cardinal Bellini (Stanley Tucci) tells Lawrence that he has no desire for the seat of Peter and only puts his name forward in desperation to avoid a future Pope Tedesco (or a Pope Adeyemi). Lawrence himself agrees and casts at least five ballots for the American, whose look and views may remind some viewers of Father James Martin, SJ, the queer-friendly pastor affectionately known as “Stephen Colbert’s priest” and a familiar face in Hollywood (Silence, The Irishman). The middle-of-the-aisle candidate is Cardinal Tremblay (John Lithgow), whose views align well enough with Lawrence’s vision for the next pope, but not his actions. These are the three names to beat. Lawrence and a previously unknown Mexican cardinal, Vincent Cardinal Benitez (Carlos Diehz), appointed in secret by the last pope to protect his ministry in Kabul, Afghanistan, slowly collect votes without campaigning like the others.
The new cardinal intrigued me more than anyone else. He had to be played by an unknown actor like Diehz for the shocking effect to work on the viewers too, and Diehz plays the part quietly and abundant in humility. He’s so humble he occasionally gets lost in the sea of gossip overflowing the Sistine Chapel. The camera even introduces him slumped over and from a distance as he sleeps in a chair. His experience in the Congo and Afghanistan accreditate him when he chastises Tremblay’s Islamophobic tirade promising a culture “war.” Benitez actually knows war’s ugly face. The mystery around his health will certainly spark disgust by ultra-conservatives, in real life and in the movie, but nobody knows because nobody asks. He doesn’t hide his “issue.” It just doesn’t percolate.
Faith involves mystery, and Conclave keeps the mystery alive. I wouldn’t call it a supernatural film, but Berger keeps room for a guiding (supernatural) figure. The sequestered cardinals know nothing of the outside world, sheltered from the news and the media, while the world around them falls apart — their presence and their task at hand feels world-changing (because it will) because of the loud and violent “noise” outside. One vote finds itself interrupted by a terrorist attack outside of the chapel. The blast comes right as Lawrence casts his vote at a crossroads in the conclave he steers. The camera looks up at the hole in the chapel as the light from outside slips in; for better or for worse, their sequestered world has been opened. Like the mendicant monks of medieval Europe, who moved into the cities rather than living apart from the people in their rural monasteries, Conclave points to a church (or, more broadly, political center of power) open to and embracive of the world.
Berger somehow walks the thin line of grounding his story in the real atmosphere and conflicting priorities of the Catholic Church, avoiding caricatures of real-life analogs, and imbuing mystery. A misstep in any direction of the line and Conclave would come across as more telenovela– or worse, Huffington Post— than serious thriller. Other than Tedesco, though, the main candidates for pope are complex, ideologically embodied individuals. Lawrence’s homily to open the conclave illustrates perfectly. He prays for a pope of both doubt and faith, for without doubt the latter has no meaning, and for a pope who sins and asks for forgiveness. Our culture is short of the mercy and humility he asks for and models in the homily, and it was tough for me to not think of the timing of the film’s release just 11 days before the US presidential election. Too bad the “right” candidate won’t win this election. Our only two options enable and support the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, and, as Benitez says, his vocational responsibility lies in placing a vote for the candidate best fit to succeed as the vicar of Christ (a Palestinian Jew from a city now in the occupied West Bank) and not just to vote against a worse potential successor.
Conclave
2024
dir. Edward Berger
120 mins.
Now playing @ Coolidge Corner Theatre, Kendall Square Cinema, and all local AMC theaters
Joshua Polanski is a freelance film and culture writer who writes regularly for the Boston Hassle and In Review Online. He has contributed to the Bay Area Reporter, Off Screen, and DMovies amongst other places. His interests include the technical elements of filmmaking & exhibition, slow & digital cinemas, cinematic sexuality, as well as Eastern and Northern European, East Asian, & Middle Eastern film.