Conclave (2024) Review

Conclave (2024)
Director: Edward Berger
Screenwriters: Peter Straughan
Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, Sergio Castellitto, Isabella Rossellini, Lucian Msamati, Carlos Diehz

At a certain point, you would have been forgiven for thinking that Ralph Fiennes had reached the peak of his career, and that he couldn’t find anything else to extend his stellar list of performances. As it turns out, he has managed to find something that might just net him his first Oscar nomination in nearly thirty years. If he goes on to win the award, the Academy will finally have come to their senses and made something that seems increasingly rare; a decent choice.

The story is simple. The pope is dead. A new one must be elected from within the top ranks of cardinals from across the world. To this end, Ralph Fiennes’s Thomas Cardinal Lawrence oversees the next Papal conclave, where over 100 possible popes are sequestered away from the outside world, phones ripped out and electronic shutters installed, in order to advocate and scheme and vote for the papacy. Mysteries and secrets and alliances abound as Lawrence, whilst struggling with his own faith and position in the Catholic Church, must steer the rivalries and political infighting of his fellow leaders towards a suitable candidate.

Everything about Conclave is stellar. The performances, first and foremost, are wonderful, with the aforementioned Fiennes giving one of the best performances of his entire career. Lawrence speaks with such quiet, calm authority, fighting both his personal demons and the almost impossible task placed before him. As he says when someone calls the preparations for the conclave a fair vision of Hell, “Don’t be blasphemous, Ray; Hell arrives tomorrow when we bring in the cardinals.” He doesn’t shout or scream, but shows everything the character is going through in subtle gestures and tiny inflections of vocal range, the small things that make a great performance.

One of the major things to like about Conclave is that almost everyone is fallible, on all political sides. Though the film undoubtedly has a progressive ending, nearly all of those of a left-wing political persuasion have issues just as much as those firmly on the right. The Catholic church is made of petty, squabbling men fighting for influence and power through trickery, bribery, and deception. Doing this is quite daring for a script, which usually makes clear its villains and its heroes. Here, almost everyone is given an equal treatment – the bad ones have their good and positive traits, and the more progressive individuals have their flaws and downsides.

All of this is portrayed through the sharply refined script and close, poised direction of All Quiet on the Western Front (2022) director Edward Berger. Everything is slow and still, not often going for anything fancy because to do so would be to pull back from the tight, claustrophobic world of the conclave. The cinematography from Stéphane Fontaine (Jackie, 2016) reveals itself in splendour, especially in an explosive scene near the end of the film, bringing the cardinals to order through a beautiful, if a little on-the-nose, ray of light shafting through the wall. In yet more praise for the crew, the sound design is impeccable, utilising something very rare in films; absolute silence. In the quieter moments, conversations between characters are devoid of all background noise, with no room tone to give a ‘realistic’ feel to the scenes. They talk in absolute silence, with no ambiance in the backing tracks, giving everything far more weight for its unusualness.

More than just a technical achievement, Conclave properly holds its dramatic weight. It truly engrosses you in the drama, in the scheming and plotting. When secrets are revealed, you’ll do well to not hold your breath. The film is fairly dialogue-heavy, but it offers just enough moments between characters, looks, passes, and interactions in silence, to drag it away from radio drama territory. Best of all, it can be watched and respected by people of all faiths, because although Catholicism is at its forefront, it is, at its heart, a political thriller. The discussions of faith and what it means for people can be appreciated even if one does not ascribe to the Judeo-Christian faith. It works because it is a film about people being people, each utterly human in their highs and lows.

There is a slight niggle to the final reveal, which seems to be included to give every character their fair share of secrets that might damage them in some way. It isn’t strictly necessary, and some might consider it a downside, but it does, to its credit, allow for some final ruminations on faith and the doctrines and traditions of a millennia-old institution.

Conclave is a gripping piece of storytelling, and certainly one of the best films of 2024. In a film about finding faith amidst the chaos and clutter and noise and pettiness of everyday life, the film itself has the power to give faith to the world that good, thoughtful, powerful cinema, can still be made.

Score: 23/24

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