“Who gonna be da pope?” That’s the central question propelling Conclave, a mostly well-done slow-burner from director Edward Berger starring Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci and John Lithgow.
They play three cardinals dealing with the sudden death of the pope, and the squirrelly, mischievous politics that take place as all the holy guys answer that central mystery, “Who’s gonna be the next guy to wear the funny hat and rep for the Big Guy?”
Fiennes does strong work as Lawrence, the man basically in charge of the proceedings who doesn’t necessarily want the gig for one reason or another.
Lithgow plays Tremblay, a cardinal who might just be a lying bastard—which is not generally a desirable character trait for somebody you call the pope. Tucci is good as an all-business candidate who doesn’t want some right-wing candidate to come in and screw things up for the more open-minded pope wannabes.
This may not be the movie for me. The fact that I don’t give one flying shit about the papacy makes this less than totally interesting. The conclusion didn’t really knock me on my ass when it was revealed. I just sort of thought, “Well, that certainly happened.” But I can’t deny the fine acting and the film’s beautiful look, which is a triumph of art direction and cinematography.
This one has “Oscar contender” written all over it, so expect to see some nominations (Best Picture, Best Actor and/or Supporting Actor, Best Most Catholic in Every Way Picture, etc.).
While I try to avoid paying attention to advance buzz on movies, Conclave has been getting buzz for quite some time, so I went in with high expectations. The results were certainly entertaining and sometimes interesting, but the movie is vastly overrated. It’s not one of the year’s best—and this is a year that doesn’t have very many excellent films thus far.
