MIDNIGHT REVIEWS Conclave Review
Filmed in front of a live Papal audience.
Matthew D. Smith also has a podcast he co-hosts with Leslie Wai. You can find it here.
Conclave (2hr)
Directed by: Edward Berger
Featuring: Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow
Synopsis: Cardinal Lawrence (Fiennes) is tasked with the job of overseeing one of the most secretive and high-pressure events: selecting a new Pope. In the process, he comes across conspiracies, hurdles and politics in place of God.
Review: The Pope has died. This is where Conclave drops us, following Cardinal Lawrence as he makes his way to the bedside of His Holiness, his next task not long away. As Dean, he must manage the process of selecting a new Pope, overcoming each new obstacle as they arrive.
While it sounds like it could be a really awful sitcom, Conclave is a melo drama through and through. Its strengths lie in finding the point where things would bubble over into silliness and stopping short of that, enabling the drama to play out. Even a revelation at the end (how fitting), which on paper is perhaps a touch ridiculous, plays well on screen and, considering the subject matter, wholly avoids being preachy.
Ralph Fiennes is extraordinary. He belongs in that bracket of performers where perhaps the general public have gotten used to just how good he is, but there are moments in Conclave that remind us of his talents. A single lonely tear as he sits at the bedside of someone he truly admired; playing someone who must remain calm and placid at all times allowing himself a moment to break down. His ability to communicate the internal balancing act Lawrence is forced to commit to. His expression when he realises that, maybe, he did want to become Pope.
Its score […] will either heighten the film’s qualities or provide distraction.
Supporting roles are ably cast and depicted. Stanley Tucci finds a compelling way to play someone who doesn’t do much but sit and listen, his character struggling with the middle ground between Papal realpolitik and God. John Lithgow is great, but perhaps underutilised.
Its score, depending on who you are, will either heighten the film’s qualities or provide distraction. It’s used well sometimes, in that it fits the melodramatic mood of what we’re seeing onscreen, but as said sometimes gets in the way of everything else. Production design is beautiful; film makes being forced to recreate the film’s settings have done a terrific job of forcing us to question the veracity of their role.
Going in, some might consider Conclave an opportunity to investigate or discuss controversies related to the Catholic church, but this film is more about knowing oneself. We follow not the church, but a single human being, as Lawrence deals with his struggles both spiritual and practical. Someone not ordained in the usual way shows up, wishing to cast his vote. Someone else sets up an embarrassing situation to make another potential Pope look bad. All the while, Lawrence has his hands clasped behind his back, but his jawbone tense.
A melodrama [that] explores the surface.
The movie does struggle with communicating some of this tension, as well as the practical parts of just how Lawrence found himself as a front runner for the position. Where he sits relative to the rest of the conclave isn’t made clear. At first he seems like someone in the background, only coming to the fore when organising dinner or telling people where to drop their ballot, before suddenly being thrust into the race head first. Taking this out would lose an interesting thread of self-realisation for the character, but it ends up giving Conclave an oily sheen, where instead of wondering what he’s going to do with John Lithgow, we’re wondering just how Dean Lawrence has more votes than Jesus had disciples.
It ends up with Conclave being a perfectly fine movie. A two hour runtime is perfect; any less and it would probably end up soapy, any longer and extraneous scenes threaten to become po-faced. Much like the church, its power is in creating ceremony, and then reinforcing its strength in the moments where tradition or continuity are interrupted. Repeated voting scenes are not boring, nor are they heightened tension. We are curious at these points.
Conclave can probably best be summed up in its depiction of a literal explosion. In the first instance, it seems like God Himself is reaching into the conclave to disrupt proceedings, but it is soon revealed to be a practical matter. Where a weightier drama might have been able to get under the skin of each character as they deal with their own points of view on this matter, Conclave is a melodrama as it explores the surface of this idea before moving on to the next thing.
Matthew D. Smith likes to overshare his views on movies and TV shows whenever and wherever he can. Indulge him, and follow him on Twitter or enjoy the podcast he co-hosts with Leslie Wai.
