Voters will soon have to choose between choosing the candidate they believe in. Or will you choose to keep right-wing strongmen out of power? Ideally, these goals and aspirations would overlap, and you might already have a version of this question in your mind, but the particular voters I’m referring to happen to be the ones who were asked in Edward Berger’s “Conclave” A group of cardinals isolated in the Vatican.
Adapted by Peter Straughan from Robert Harris’ 2016 novel, “The Conclave” is masterfully staged and meticulously acted, depicting the story of the highly controlled ceremony of selecting a new pope. contains these universal struggles. With its behind-the-scenes shenanigans among scheming cardinals and a Pakra-esque penchant for stairwell campaigns among power brokers, “Conclave” is more a scandalously perverse papal potboiler than an exploratory work of philosophy. It is.
Cardinal Laurence (Ralph Fiennes) is entrusted with managing the council after the Pope’s death, but he is reluctant to take on the task. White smoke will only rise if one of the cardinals wins a majority of 72 votes, and it will take a monumental feat of delicate diplomacy to guide the power-hungry cabal to that number in this contest. It may be the work of God. Or two.
Perhaps this would be an easy task for a less principled cardinal. Sadly, the burden of choosing the right pope falls on Lawrence, and that responsibility is complicated by the fact that unpleasant rumors and controversy swirl around three of the most ambitious front-runners. . The gentle Cardinal Adeyemi (Lucien Msamati) and the ultra-traditional, constantly smoking Cardinal Tedesco (Sergio Castellitto). However, Lawrence wants to support the quietly progressive Cardinal Bellini (Stanley Tucci), but Cardinal Bellini avoids that possibility.
The conclave is also thrown into turmoil by an unexpected guest: a cardinal secretly appointed by the Pope. A silent bombshell as Kabul’s archbishop, the enigmatic Cardinal Benitez (Carlos Diez), arrives unannounced and his presence sends ripples through the dynamic venue, making him a surprising dark horse candidate for this performance. waiting to explode.
Lawrence himself has publicly rejected the role, citing a crisis of faith, but some have accused him of harboring such ambitions. Fiennes gives a painfully restrained performance, but he manages to let a glimmer of hope shine across his carefully composed face. Perhaps, if the votes go his way, that might actually happen. This subtle subplot, so beautifully played by Fiennes, is the real gem at the heart of the film.
Closed politics devolve into high school movie-like lunchroom antics and social warfare, but this swirl of interpersonal drama spans centuries, including clothes, ballots, and class. It is grounded in the pomp and atmosphere of the ceremony. But director Berger (All Quiet on the Western Front) takes a modern approach to the film’s style. Production designer Suzy Davies provides a dramatic red, white and black set. This is a rough, shiny surface with a certain coolness. Cinematographer Stéphane Fontaine exploits the unique scale and scope of the Vatican to achieve breathtaking compositions and slow creeping zooms that heighten the pressure of the claustrophobic atmosphere. The innovative string instruments in composer Volker Bertelmann’s score deftly convey the danger of the situation.
But the richness of the filmmaking, including strong performances, obscures the fact that the story itself is a very flimsy, silly mystery with twists that ease the intellectual conundrums at the heart of the story. There is. The script wants to tackle the question of whether the church can progress and adapt to the modern world, but the subtext is all text. “Conclave” does not encourage the audience to dig deeper. It frankly provides all the questions and answers and then demands our attention with various surprising developments that, strangely enough, are presented with the same amount of scandal, albeit not on the same moral scale. Distract.
“Conclave” is a movie that seems deeper than it actually is. In reality, the film is a slightly sordid thriller about the secret inner workings of the Vatican. The screenplay’s themes can be extrapolated to broader sociopolitical issues, but it fails to offer any new insights beyond the basic notion that cardinals are just like us.
Katie Walsh is a film critic for Tribune News Service.
‘conclave’
Rating: PG, for themed material and smoking
Running time: 2 hours
Now in theaters: Widely released on Friday, October 25th
