Conclave (2024) Review: Ralph Fiennes Leads a Well-Acted and Gripping Drama of Papal Election
It never crosses my mind that a movie about a papal election can be such an engaging drama and that’s what you get here in Conclave. The movie also marks the highly-anticipated return of Edward Berger, the director behind the Oscar-winning All Quiet on the Western Front remake. His taut direction in Conclave is one of the main reasons that keeps me interested right from the start, beginning with the opening scene of Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes), who also served as the dean for the College of Cardinals finds out about the unexpected death of the Holy Father (Bruno Novelli) in his chamber.
His demise means Lawrence has to oversee the process of electing a new pope. There are a few potential candidates but Lawrence personally prefers the more progressive Cardinal Bellini (Stanley Tucci) to win the election. Others include Cardinal Tremblay (John Lithgow), whose final meeting with the late pope before his death sparks controversy; the socially conservative Nigerian Cardinal Adeyemi (Lucian Msamati); and Italian traditionalist Cardinal Tedesco (Sergio Castellitto).
Then comes the unlikely candidate that no one expected at all: a newcomer in the form of a Mexican archbishop from Kabul named Cardinal Benitez (Carlos Diehz). There’s little information regarding Benitez’s surprise arrival as part of the College of Cardinals, which in turn, prompted Lawrence to rely on his assistant Monsignor O’Malley (Brian F. O’Byrne) to find out whatever intel he can gather.
Conclave takes place predominantly within the confines of the Vatican with Berger, working from Peter Straughan’s absorbing screenplay based upon Robert Harris’ 2016 novel of the same name, managing to sustain interest in the inner workings of the papal election. There’s a lingering sense of claustrophobic dread surrounding the ongoing voting process in the search for a new pope with Berger expertly approaching his movie reminiscent of a ticking-bomb thriller. He draws the tense moments from the well-written dialogue and all the cardinals’ hush-hush backdoor with their ideologies, debates, motives and hidden secrets.
The added conspiracy theory and power play made this dialogue-heavy drama feel like a page-turner, making us wonder and anticipate what comes next as the plot thickens. It also helps that Berger maintains an overall assured pace while displaying an engrossing sense of visual flair with the help of Stéphane Fontaine’s atmospheric cinematography emphasising everything from the muted corridor that lines the cardinals’ chambers to the red robes and the intricately architecture design of the Vatican. Not to mention the unique musical presence of Volker Bertelmann’s frequently ominous score at key moments like you are watching a psychological or political thriller but in the guise of a chamber drama. This instantly reminds me of Bertelmann’s approach in his unconventional Oscar-winning score in All Quiet on the Western Front.
Another strong point that drives Conclave is its well-acted ensemble cast, notably Ralph Fiennes’ subtly conflicting lead role as Cardinal Lawrence, the dean who has a problem of his own amidst the papal election. He is backed by solid supporting turns from Stanley Tucci’s liberal Cardinal Bellini to John Lithgow’s seemingly mild-mannered but manipulative Cardinal Tremblay and Lucian Msamati, best known for his role as Ed Dumani in TV’s Gangs of London, as Cardinal Adeyemi.
Conclave culminates in a twist ending that I didn’t see it coming. It’s intriguing on its own but as a whole, it’s hard to shake off the nagging feeling as if the twist is added just for the sake of lurid sensationalism. This is especially true with the dramatic imbalance between all the deliberate build-ups from the well-composed first two acts and the somewhat rushed finale leading to the twist. Still, the movie’s partial shortcomings aside, it remains a highly watchable drama worth checking out.
