Review: Conclave

Image courtesy of Focus Features.

The most interesting movie about organized - or, in this case, disorganized - religion in some time, director Edward Berger's "Conclave" is likely to be one of the year's most talked about films, and not only due to that twist near its end. 

The movie plays like a political thriller, although its story would not suggest such intrigue. "Conclave" opens with the death of a pope, who seemingly left behind his share of secrets and some unresolved palace intrigue. Ralph Fiennes plays Cardinal Lawrence, the man who has begrudgingly been tasked with leading the conclave that will select the next pope.

Although the film doesn't go so far to suggest that Lawrence has lost his faith, he openly tells his closest allies in the church - which include Cardinal Bellini (Stanley Tucci) and Cardinal Benitez (Carlos Diehz), a man whom no one in the Catholic Church hierarchy knew even existed until he turned up for the conclave from Kabul, where he secretly presides - that he doesn't believe he's the man for the task.

In one of the film's strongest scenes, Lawrence opens the conclave with a bit of controversy - a speech in which he attacks the nature of certainty, which he says removes the mystery of religion but also, in turn, the necessity of faith itself. 

Lawrence's speech could be viewed as a warning to some of the cardinals vying for the spot as the church's leader. Among those gathered include the ambitious Cardinal Tremblay, who will resort to unethical tactics to remove others from contention; Cardinal Adeyemi (Lucian Msamati), an African bishop with some controversial views and possibly some skeletons in the closet; Bellini; and Cardinal Tedesco (Sergio Castellitto), an Italian who wants to overturn the liberal order favored by Lawrence and Bellini and return to an ultraconservative church.

While the film is not technically a thriller - other than the pope dying in the opening scene, the only other violence in the film is a series of surprise terrorist attacks around Rome during the course of the conclave - it sure plays like one.

When Bellini's candidacy begins to falter and Tremblay and Tedesco begin to rise to the top of the pack, the liberal consortium begins to panic and two unlikely figures end up getting pushed to the forefront. I won't give anything else away, other than to say that Lawrence gets a chance to question how much he himself wants to be part of the church's power structure and there's a major plot reveal late in the film regarding another character.

Fiennes has long been an actor of great stature, but his performance here ranks among his very best. Tucci is solid as Bellini and I'm not sure I've ever seen Lithgow play such a loathsome character (other than his villain role in "Blow Out"). Diehz is the film's breakout performance as the cardinal whom no one even knew existed and whose role as a Mexican cardinal leading missionaries in dangerous locales around the world (first, the Congo, and then Baghdad and Kabul) lend him an air of mystery.

This is a very intriguing film, especially as the film is less about religion and more about power structures. In fact, the most interesting element that has anything to do with religion in the film is Fiennes' early speech about the dangers of certainty - although this is also clearly aimed at the regressive beliefs of some of his fellow cardinals, namely Tedesco, who gives a long-winded speech attacking Muslims and calling for the church to conduct a holy war amid the terrorist attacks in Rome.

Berger's previous film, the adaptation of "All Quiet on the Western Front," was solid and was nominated for a bunch of Oscars, but I think "Conclave" is even better. It is, thus far, one of the standouts in a year that has otherwise been a bit lackluster so far.