Review: Conclave

Oscar season is both my favorite and least favorite time of the year. There’s always a glut of films that are released that usually contain something worthwhile about them, whether it be a strong cast, solid director, or interesting premise, but Oscar-buzz doesn’t necessarily translate to me being interested in them. I tend to be a bit more cynical than most and I will rarely campaign for a film to receive recognition at the Oscars. One element is definitely because I find the ceremony pretty pointless at the end of the day, but also because I find that a good movie doesn’t need awards and adulation to be a masterpiece. Hell, most of my favorite movies of the year are rarely considered Oscar contenders.

I guess all of this is a roundabout way of saying that while I was eager to see Conclave, I wasn’t frothing at the mouth for it despite the praise saying that Ralph Fiennes is a front-runner for Best Actor. That’s a nice little feather in the film’s cap, but I wanted to see why people were raving about his performance. Was that the best thing about the movie and the rest of it is mediocre, or is the entire film great? I can say it takes a bit to really get going, but once it does, Conclave delivers an enjoyable enough story that’s a bit marred by how much we don’t see.

Conclave
Director: Edward Berger
Release Date: October 25, 2024 (Theatrical)
Rating: PG

Conclave follows Cardinal Thomas Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) in the aftermath of the death of the previous pope. Because the Church needs a leader, Thomas is responsible for overseeing the conclave that will determine who the next pope is. This leads to a massive game of political jockeying with each faction of Cardinals trying to push their ideal candidate for pope to the forefront. The ones who gain the most recognition initially are Cardinal Trembley (John Lithgow), Cardinal Bellini (Stanley Tucci), Cardinal Tedesco (Sergio Castellitto), and Cardinal Adeyemi (Lucia Msamati). Nothing is ever simple though, and secrets about each candidate slowly come to light as well as some of the last actions of the previous pope, all resulting in a conclave that is anything but normal.

From the get-go, Conclave establishes a lot of pieces at once to get us to the secret election. It results in an intro that feels bogged down in a lot of exposition as we have to introduce each major character, their visions for the future of the Church, and the lingering mysteries about the previous pope and his death. For the most part, these moments are successful, but it does make the earlier parts of the film a bit dull. It’s almost like Conclave is a stern parent who’s forcing us to eat icky vegetables before we can have the sweet dessert. I want to see the jockeying for power and secret backroom deals, but first, we have to know the main players and how they operate.

It’s all out of necessity though because once the film gets going, it’s a satisfying ride. A lot of comparisons have been made about how some of the moments feel a bit like Mean Girls, but that’s a wonderful compliment in my eyes. I would go further and say Conclave feels like a blend of the almost comical teenage drama Mean Girls excelled at and the shocking revelations that would be best found in a mystery like Knives Out. At points you’re laughing at how these supposedly wise and holy adults are bickering, spreading rumors, and even publically ousting each other to ruin their reputation like a group of kids. These moments serve as exclamation points to more drawn-out sequences where people will speak privately to one another and alert us to what’s going on in the plot at large, so they serve their function of making big moments that are fit for trailers and awards reels.

The film is mostly told from Ralph Fiennes’ perspective, but that’s both a blessing and a curse. He’s great overall, presenting Thomas as a man who is forced to do a job he doesn’t want to do, but he’ll do it to the best of his ability because that’s what’s expected of him. Even when people are thrusting responsibility onto him, we see a genuine effort for him to not only do what’s right but also try to be as fair as possible and not sway anyone’s opinion one way or the other. He has his own opinion and his own beliefs, ones he openly questions, but he tries to put his responsibilities first to ensure a smooth transition for the next pope. He shows the difficulty of maintaining neutrality and the emotional burden that clearly has on him in multiple scenes. It’s an understated performance and one that’s full of subtleties, but it’s a performance that is rightly earning him acclaim.

That being said, the plot of the film overall suffers because we focus entirely on him. We’re not privy to any of the behind-the-scenes bartering and negotiations that are making these numerous rounds of voting so compelling. We’re always told about how others have reacted to them and the effects they’re having on the conclave at large, but we never actually see that. There’s a moment later in the movie where Thomas accuses Bellini of accepting a secret proposition from another candidate, but that’s neither confirmed nor denied by Bellini, making the scene come across as frustrating because of how much we don’t know. We’re meant to be left in the dark so that the end result can be all the more shocking, but because the film keeps us at arms’ length, it means we’re unable to connect with any other character besides Ralph Fiennes.

I think that’s why Fiennes is getting the acclaim he is for the role. Yes, his performance is good, but because we barely get to spend any time with anyone else, it’s hard for the other performances to register. Stanley Tucci is good as a cardinal who is begrudgingly accepting of the fact that he will most likely be the next pope even though he doesn’t want the position. Isabella Rossellini is a nun who is facilitating the behind-the-scenes running of the conclave, but outside of a single brief monologue, her character is hardly present. I want to see more of these characters. I want to see more of the internal drama motivating these characters, but we can’t. We’re always told X, Y, and Z are happening, but I find myself rarely caring about any of it.

I do love the ending though. When the dust has settled and you think Conclave is almost over, it still has a few tricks up its sleeves and a couple of mysteries to resolve. Those few ending scenes are great and really do present a solid twist that I didn’t see coming, even if the person who will become the pope seems obvious from the moment their character is introduced. I can’t speak on the opinions that Catholics will have on it because it does go out there to the point where it seems to almost intentionally be setting up discussions on faith, doctrine, sexuality, and a whole host of other political buzzwords, but as far as generating a reaction goes, it certainly accomplished that.

I admit, my opinion of the movie may decline the more I think about it (most of the other characters are fairly one-note and can be classified as either conservative and regressive or liberal and manipulative), but if I were to give a kneejerk reaction to my thoughts on the film, I want to say I liked Conclave. It’s not a perfect movie as far as the plot goes, but the focus on Fiennes’s character does help ground the film and deliver a performance that is justifiably earning the acclaim it is. It will certainly generate discussion, almost awkwardly so at times, but if someone were to say that Conclave was one of the best movies of the year, I wouldn’t deny it. I wouldn’t agree with it, but out of all of the Oscar hopefuls I saw this season, it’s one of the better ones.