“Conclave” - Film Review
Conclave comes across as deceptively simple. It’s the story of Catholic cardinals, sequestered in Rome, voting in a new Pope over the course of a few days. The world outside, which we barely see, is shifting radically around them, yet they’re restrained by hundreds of years of tradition and order. Even within this group of cardinal brothers, there are echoes of the social and political climate outside that threaten to shake the foundation of the Catholic Church. Yet some of them would argue that the Church needs to be fundamentally shaken in order to best serve the people beyond their sequestered doors. Conclave can be boiled down to a series of conversations and gossip, the conclusion of which is nothing short of earth-shattering.
A sudden heart attack leads to the death of the current Pope, and Cardinal-Dean Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes), is responsible for organizing the conclave meeting that will lead to the next Pope. When the voting begins, there are four frontrunners for the job: Bellini (Stanley Tucci), Adeyemi (Lucian Msamati), Tremblay (John Lithgow), and Tedesco (Sergio Castellitto). Bellini’s views are more liberal and in line with the previous Pope’s, while Adeyami, Tremblay, and Tedesco are all varying levels of conservative, with Tedesco being the most extreme. Bellini claims that he is not interested in the job, but feels he must be open to becoming Pope in order to keep someone like Tedesco away from that much power. The conclave is thrown for a loop when an unknown Archbishop arrives. Benitez (Carlos Diehz) comes from Kabul and, despite no one knowing of his existence prior to the beginning of the conclave, becomes a contender.
courtesy of TIFF
At the heart of Conclave is the idea that life exists on two ends of a spectrum, and rarely do we find ourselves existing in a happy medium. The sincerity and intensity with which the spectacle of the conclave is put on are directly at odds with how ridiculous all of it is. How all of this tradition feels antithetical to a cardinal hitting a vape pen while deep in the Vatican. The world of the Church does not allow for people to find themselves in the middle. There are saints and sinners and nothing in between, because you need those polar opposites in order for organized religion to do its job. In his opening homily to the cardinals, Dean Lawrence speaks of doubt and uncertainty, which sends a ripple through the men. Their job is supposed to be removed from those feelings, yet that’s all Dean Lawrence can think of as he tries to resign due to a crisis of faith. Conclave exists in the chasm between doubt and certainty. Between the egos of those who want the job for power and control and those who don’t want it, but if elected would use the opportunity to create progress. It’s the friction of these two worlds that makes the film a fascinating experiment to eavesdrop on for two hours.
The ending of Conclave will likely ruffle many feathers within the Catholic Church, while others, from a storytelling perspective, may find its eleventh-hour reveal to be more for shock value than anything else. One could argue that reality exists somewhere in the in-between, like so much of what has come before it. That the ending is both radical and the equivalent of pulling a rug out. Given the film’s setting and circumstances, the ending is something that creates a conversation that’s worth having among the most devout as well as those who have never set foot inside a church. Conclave is, beneath its posturings of grandness, a quiet story about faith and confidence in the unknowingness that exists in our reality. It’s the sparring of progress and tradition in a world that is immensely desperate to have something that makes sense when it seems as though uncertainty reigns supreme.
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