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Conclave Movie Review

Conclave is a 2024 thriller film directed by Edward Berger and starring Ralph Fiennes. It’s a solidly made and very well acted, but silly and trashy movie.

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“The church is not the past.

It is what we do next“

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When Cardinal Lawrence is tasked with selecting a new Pope, he finds himself at the center of a conspiracy that could shake the very foundation of the Catholic Church. First off, I am not a fan of Berger. His take on ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ was very overrated to me and his directing on this picture is also not all that great. He failed to elevate the material with especially powerful imagery or ideas.

I should have expected from Hollywood to make an anti-Catholic movie, but I couldn’t even imagine that it would be this sensational and this preposterous. It contains so many ideas and concepts that could only appeal to the liberal woke mob that it honestly seemed as if it was written by A.I. Conclave is essentially Hollywood’s wet dream of what the Vatican could be, a representation that is not only false from the onset, but also absolutely ludicrous for believers and sane atheists alike.

I am an atheist/agnostic myself, but I strive to be tolerant, and true tolerance is tolerance toward all people, including believers. And this movie to me felt like a highly ignorant, ridiculous and mocking depiction of the church. I cannot imagine anyone liking this film who isn’t a raging liberal, and even then a film about the church would not appeal to the majority of those people, so this movie’s appeal is extremely limited.

The first half of the movie is excellent. I actually found it to be quite engaging and suitably thrilling in its depiction of the Vatican and their practices, especially focusing on the election process for the new pope, the process that very much functions as an election in politics would. The film deservedly so criticized the corruption of this institution as well as their numerous seemingly overly complicated and made-up laws and practices that they follow. It depicts how arrogance and ambition runs deep in some of these men and how truly Christian ideas like humility and kindness have become absent in way too many of them.

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But the second half ruined the movie for me. This is where it became this liberal manifesto for the American movie industry, a manifesto that entirely lacked subtlety and sophistication. Suddenly, these cardinals would have arguments about liberalism versus conservatism with the obvious slant against the latter. I didn’t have a problem with the content of the argument itself, but I had the issue with the delivery as the dialogue was so on-the-nose and so childish in its writing. And then we have the big twist toward the end. I respected the movie for actually including numerous twists and turns and being highly unpredictable in who the eventual pope will be, but that final choice was definitely a choice.

It turns out that this man is intersex and through this we have an obvious agenda calling for the Vatican to actually consider women for this position. This was not just entirely unnecessary to the bigger story, but it was also lazily written and it was both preposterous and sensational in such an immature way that I honestly felt that either A.I. or a kid could have written it. If this is considered writing today, then we are in real danger. Not only is this man intersex, but he is also Latino from Kabul, so the very concept of depicting 0.1 percent of 0.1 percent of the population for this huge position was again laughable and it just goes to show how disconnected Hollywood has become from the wider society.

Conclave is very well shot, superbly scored and quite cinematic at times. The editing and pacing are excellent and so is the production design with the sets looking highly believable. The costumes are also exquisite and quite colorful. The directing left a lot to be desired, but at least the acting from its superb ensemble was fantastic. Ralph Fiennes delivered one of his best works to date in such a well written, complex role. His character’s motifs and intentions are quite complicated and Fiennes sold his more ruthless and more empathetic side with flying colors. Stanley Tucci is terrific as always in a smaller role while John Lithgow was great, but underused. I wanted more use for all of these great actors. As for Isabella Rossellini, her role is extremely small, but there are no small roles, but only small actors and she exemplifies that as she did the most that she could, delivering such a strong, emotional performance.

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