Conclave (2024)

Robert Harris' back catalogue of historical fiction is ripe for cinematic adaptation, and Conclave isn't the first of his works to find its way to the big screen. It is probably however, the most critically lauded to date.

Ralph Fiennes is on potentially Oscar winning form as Cardinal Lawrence, given the role by the late Pope of leading a conclave shortly after the Holy Father's death. It falls to Lawrence to lead things once the many Cardinals have arrived in Rome, and are sequestered at the behest of the Roman Catholic Church whilst they choose a new Pope.

Conclave opens with Lawrence's arrival in Rome to see the body of the recently deceased Pope; a corpse that director Edward Berger is keen to acknowledge is just like any other human being once the last breath has been taken away from him. Berger ruthlessly shows us the zipping of the body bag, and lets the camera linger once the stretcher holding it has been rammed into the back of an ambulance- the finality nothing more than a physical reality; any beliefs we may have about what happens once we die are left to the imagination.

Belief is still a key part of Conclave however. Cardinal Lawrence's has recently taken a hit, and he makes it abundantly clear he's in no fit state to become Pope as a result, and indeed the first few votes suggest that others may agree with him. From the outset it seems that the front-runners seem to be Cardinal Tedesco- deliciously played by Sergio Castellitto as the hard-line pre-Vatican traditionalist, frequently seen vaping on a red vape when things get tense; John Lithgow's Cardinal Tremblay is a serious contender but suspicions remain over what was spoken of during his last meeting with the Holy Father before his death; and Lucien Msamati's Joshua Cardinal Adeyemi is popular to become the Church's first black Pope.

Each of these has major flaws which Lawrence believes would set the church back several decades, and that the only realistic challenger to them is Stanley Tucci's Cardinal Bellini; hardly the ideal candidate, but a more modern thinking server of the Church and arguably the closest representation of the current real life Pope we have. There's also the mysterious figure of Cardinal Benitez (Carlos Diehz) who turns up unannounced, claiming the Holy Father ordained him as Cardinal of Kabul in secret in attempt to keep him safe during his missionary. And Isabella Rossellini is superb as Sister Agnes, the only one amongst many nuns we see that actually seems to have a voice: quietly listening at doors and seemingly knowing everything that's going on. Her mic-drop speech towards the end is one of the film's finest moments, and sets us up for a grand finale.

From here, Conclave almost plays like an extended episode of the American drama series House of Cards (2013-2018), and for the most part, it is quietly gripping. The ensemble cast is excellent, and Fiennes should finally be recognised as the academy for his work here whilst Berger gives a fine portrayal of what it might actually be like serving in a Catholic conclave- it's far from simply a vote amongst honest and fine people who all serve God. This is all political, and-as Bellini vigorously stipulates at one point- war. Each man has their secrets, and each are slowly exposed, one revelation to the next making you question how this all ends.

So it's a real shame that the ending is as underwhelming as it is. Twists and turns up until this point have been jarring and exciting, and we seem to be heading to an ending that seems to make sense; only for a final argument between the Cardinals to make the ending abundantly obvious before it arrives. A further post revelation twist has angered some, claiming that it feeds into a potential woke agenda for today's society (an agenda that is undeniably present in general) but I didn't feel that here- I just simply thought it was utterly needless.

However, I would have had a bigger problem if the ending of Harris' novel had been altered to fit such a narrative- but it hasn't; the finale is faithful to the fiction, meaning that it might well be the source that I have more of an issue with than its representation on screen. But having not read the book before seeing Berger's adaptation, I left the cinema frustrated with its conclusion- a testament to the strength of what had come before.

7.8/10