REVIEW: Conclave (2024) dir. Edward Berger

Hitting theaters right before the US presidential election, I had little hope that Conclave would be anything but a completely areligious political thriller dressed in the drab of the Catholic Church. The trailer certainly seemed that way, and I just don’t care for most of those films. The context for a film ought to make sense, not be fetishized. And while there is a valid and true critique to the political systems that move most religious bodies in many of the areligious political thrillers set in religious atmospheres — Tarik Saleh did some competently and stylishly in Cairo Conspiracy — there is something missing from most of the these films that actually elevates the critique the (mostly liberal and secular) filmmakers (usually) intend to make. And that something missing is the contradiction of faith and doubt. Conclave, to my pleasant surprise, is a deep film of faith and hope, though, I suspect, it will ironically be tarnished by our country’s most important religious organizations for reasons quite obvious for those who’ve made it through the final “twist.”

The Holy Father is dead and the Catholic Church summons the cardinals for a conclave, a medieval tradition for electing the next pope. The first cardinal to reach a two-thirds majority will become the next pope, the most important figure in global Christianity and the head of a state. The dead Holy Father is a fictional one, though his agenda of reform and complexity certainly smells like Pope Francis. And, just like in real life, his conservative critics lead the opposition. Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) as the Dean of the College of Cardinals directs the conclave against his own wishes. He’s a man of faith and doubt, like the father in Mark 9:23-25, who proclaims to Jesus: “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” Fiennes gives the cardinal patience (but not too much), an introspective conscience, and a belief in the mystery of faith. Lawrence cares profoundly that the conclave elects the right man to the papacy, and he spends the entire film chasing down that cardinal.

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