CONCLAVE
FOUR STARS The pope is dead. Can the Cardinals come together and wisely choose his successor? DRAMA UK English #CONCLAVE Starring Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci
Packed with religious intrigue, CONCLAVE is a hugely entertaining ‘who’ll do it’ thriller dropped into a political satire to satisfy ‘thinking people’ and fans of the airport novel alike (more Agatha Christie, less Dan Brown). With a splash of tabloid press and Classical reference points, there’s a lot to get your teeth into once powerful Catholic’s mass to choose a new Pope.
The film wastes no time. The Pope is dead and it falls to Cardinal Lawrence (a sturdy Ralph Fiennes) to organise a conclave and get the job done of choosing a successor. Lawrence is the first of many conflicted men in the Vatican’s hallowed halls. In fact, he doesn’t even want the job but his request for a transfer had been denied - presumably because the former Pope knew he was the only person capable of corralling the Cardinals to the correct conclusion. He and the wily Sister Agnes (Isabella Rossellini), another Papal favourite who has a few choice scenes.
But who should get to wear the red shoes? Not the man who most wants the job, to paraphrase Plato. There’s benign Bellini (Stanley Tucci) who’ll secure a progressive papacy, the ambitious Canadian (John Lithgow) and a compromised Nigerian (Lucian Msamati) who wants to be the first African Pope. The openly racist Tedesco (Sergio Castelitto) has backing to keep the Vatican for Europeans but there’s also the quietly spoken outsider, an unknown from Kabul about whom everyone is suspicious. Perhaps Lawrence himself, despite protestation, is biding time to see which way the pendulum swings. Maybe the late Pope is managing all this from beyond the grave? As befits a whoddunit, each contender falls in turn until a successor is revealed, the first shock in a shocking one-two ending.
For better or worse CONCLAVE is not much interested in subterfuge. This adaptation of a Robert Harris novel by screenwriter Peter Straughan (TINKER TAILER SOLDIER SPY) deftly tracks changing power struggles but keeps its focus squarely on a left-vs-far-right dynamic. Theology is present enough to not become a glaring omission so that Straughan can get busy with his allegory about the shifting sand of contemporary Western politics. He brings a thrilling energy to the dialogue as it ebbs and flows then crashes across the audience: This IS a war, yells a frustrated Bellini to a resistant Lawrence.
Oscar nominated director Edward Berger (ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT) makes the most of the star power at his disposal and frames them with showy visuals, lavish interiors and a meticulous dedication to the pomp and circumstance of Vatican procedure and etiquette. Theirs is an analogue life - votes are recorded on paper, counted by hand, burned in a chimney - ideas and themes which Berger uses to great effect, especially when the outside world comes, quite literally, crashing through the Vatican’s walls. Yet he doesn't give in to temptation, visual drama is never allowed to overpower the dramatic heart of the film, using them simply as (mighty powerful) exclamation points.
As the factions fight, CONCLAVE makes a case for introspection and consideration in a world which has precious little of either any more. Reach for unity or respond with hate Lawrence asserts to his conclave, a silent prayer which is answered in a truly raucous fashion.
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