For those unfamiliar, a Conclave is the process by which the Catholic Church chooses a new pope when the position is vacated. High-ranking church officials from around the world gather and sequester themselves in the Vatican and until one of them receives two-thirds of the vote, they continue to vote. After each vote, a cloud of smoke leaves the Vatican to tell the public if a pope has been chosen with black smoke showing a negative result and white smoke showing a positive result. Robert Harris wrote a book about this process in 2006, and now director Edward Berger (Netflix’s All Quiet on the Western Front) brings it to life with the appropriately titled Conclave.
After the pope passes away in the middle of the night, his Dean (Ralph Finnes) has to head up the quest to appoint the replacement. Over a hundred cardinals from across the globe make their way to the Holy City, and it’s on from there. Honesty, that’s all I am really willing to say about it because this is the proverbial mine field when it comes to spoilers.
I wasn’t quite sure what to expect as I sat in my seat for the just-under-two-hours I would be spending with this film. I was cautiously optimistic, especially with a cast that boasts Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, and Isabella Rossellini, but let me tell you: this film was nothing short of AMAZING. Trust me when I say that the colder you go into this film, the better your experience is. For a story that seems like it could be renamed One Hundred Something Angry Men, it is SO much more than that. Even for me to put in this review what kinds of films and filmmakers appear to have influenced Conclave could lead to spoilers in itself. Add to that cast some VERY strong performances by Sergio Castellitto and Carlos Diehz as other cardinals whose characters add even more layers to a fully engrossing plot, and it just furthers my point that this film is THAT good.
And it doesn’t stop there. Beger directs this thing to pure perfection alongside Jackie cinematographer Stéphane Fontaine in a way that bounces genre feelings from thriller to even documentary in a way that keeps the intensity at a fever pitch from frame one until the lights come up. The minimist score from Volker Bertelmann (All Quiet on the Western Front, Lion) puts everything in the right place at the right time. This film is simply flawless on every level, and not in that (for the second week in a row) awards-bait kind of way. There is a natural flow to this that doesn’t scream “GIVE US HARDWARE!” that a lot of films this time of year do. There’s no way it wasn’t on the minds of its cast and crew, but that doesn’t come across on the screen.
I cannot say that Conclave is a must-see in the theater, but due to the nature of how this all goes, I would highly recommend it be seen as quickly as possible so no part of this outstanding piece of cinema is not spoiled as the Internet tends to do (even when those spoilers are not sought out). Get ready for this one to be talked about A LOT at the end of this year and the first quarter of next year.
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