‘I’ ON CULTURE
Edward Berger’s new film Conclave is like an oasis in a desert. Although not brilliant, it presents characters that are subtle, that use their brains and believe in causes. As an ensemble, it is easily the best acted film I have seen in years. The main point of the plot is, I admit, a bit creaky and melodramatic, but it still works well.
Based on a 2016 novel by Robert Harris, it focuses on the selection of a new pope for the Catholic Church. The movie begins as Thomas Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes), the Dean of the Vatican, enters the room of the recently deceased pope, unnamed although he was beloved. At that point, “Dean Lawrence” as he is called throughout the movie, is in charge of the conclave, the meeting in which a new leader will be chosen. The name conclave itself comes from Latin and means “locked room.” The cardinals are locked away in solitude for the voting, although there are others around to serve them. But the cardinals, the “princes of the church” are cut off from contact with the rest of the world while they choose.
But things start coming apart early. A new man, Vincent Benitez (Carlos Diehz), comes in with paperwork demonstrating that he had been secretly named a cardinal, one from Kabul, by the previous pope. And he is accepted. There are four major candidates, a clear plot set-up. There is Cardinal Bellini (Stanley Tucci), a man of strong progressive views; Cardinal Tremblay (John Lithgow), a man known as a bit of a plotter; Cardinal Adeyemi (Lucian Msamati), a Nigerian who is progressive on social issues but more conservative on church doctrine; and Cardinal Tedesco (Sergio Castellitto), a man who wants to cut back on good relations with other religions and push women back to what he considers their rightful place. To help you decide that he, or at least his issues, are not nice, he also has awful table manners.
It turns out that all the candidates have secrets, some seemingly minor, some very open. Dean Lawrence breaks a lot of the vows involved in the conclave by working with Sister Agnes (Isabella Rossellini), who heads up the nuns brought in to feed and clean up for the men. They find out a whole group of secrets that lead to all sorts of maneuvers and then… well, see the movie.
The acting, particularly of Fiennes, is superb. His character, going through a crisis of faith at the start, has to deal with many moral questions. Can a single act done decades earlier preclude being the leader of the Catholic Church? What about immoral plotting? But Fiennes, giving the best performance I have seen by an actor in a very long time, is believable throughout. There was no wild posturing; his character was very mild-mannered, but this really good actor was able to draw us in, to feel his anguish as he dealt with sensitive issues. At one point, Lawrence said, “I asked the pope to allow me to leave my post to join a praying order. He turned me down. I think he knew I would be needed for this.”
Tucci, as usual, is brilliant as the man you would like to support. Lithgow, of course, is up to his usual ability of managing to show three or four different qualities at once, creating a truly complex person. Castellitto was very strong, as was Msamati. And Diehz, in a smaller role, brought a strong sense of humanity.
The weakest part was the soap opera elements. The missteps were focused on, even when seemingly minor. The music clanged behind the key elements, preparing us for major issues like a typical slasher film, but most of the events were not really that vital. However, the film did focus on moral questions and managed most of it well. It is not, as someone I heard on TV say, anti-Catholic. The men (and a few women) are almost all decent folks and are shown to be. But in an era when far too many films show a good portion of the actors violating scientific principles or cut to pieces or drugged out, a film showing responsible people trying to make a moral decision is welcome.
I liked the film. I probably will watch it again once it hits the small screen.