Let’s face it, movies based on books can totally flop. Think Bonfire of the Vanities. Some surpass the book—The Godfather. And some make you want to read the book. Conclave, adapted from Robert Harris’s bestselling novel, presented by Focus Features and directed by Edward Berger (All Quiet on the Western Front), falls in that category. This meticulous, impeccably acted, finely tuned thriller provides several twists and an abundance of topicality that may inspire a deeper dive into the source material.
Screenwriter Peter Straughan’s (Oscar nominated for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) dialogue-heavy script may strike viewers as at odds with a cinematic structure. But it highlights Conclave‘s intricate political machinations and personal agendas. Given the moment-by-moment surprises the novelist Harris has laid out in his political saga, Edward Berger’s assured direction heightens the intrigue and backstabbing.
With his succinct, minimalist music, composer Volker Bertelmann (in his fifth collaboration with Berger) underlines and propels the film in a classic movie-score manner. Suzie Davies’s brilliant production design recreates the Sistine Chapel and other soaring Vatican rooms with an authenticity that renders these locations another potent character in this story.
Adding to the immersive effect of the film’s direction, script, music, and production design is the performance at its center—that of Ralph Fiennes, a true leading man. Fiennes carries Conclave with his natural cinematic presence, controlled emotional intensity, and a commanding physicality. Playing the spiritually conflicted and reluctant Cardinal Lawrence, chosen by the recently deceased Pope to manage the election of his successor, Fiennes is joined by solid performances by film legends Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, and Isabella Rossellini. This ensemble of scheming and flawed characters, with their spiritual and political agendas, is further complemented by three less known (in the U.S.) actors: Italy’s Sergio Castellito as the ultra-conservative fiery Cardinal Tedesco, UK’s Lucian Msamati, as the potential first black African Pope, Cardinal Adeyemi and Mexico’s Carlos Diehz (in his first movie role as the humanist Cardinal Benítez of Kabul). Each actor is an anchor of gravitas, pathos, and intrigue; each has indelible moments. Conclave’s casting also brilliantly conveys the global reach of the Vatican, the stark (and fraught) political baggage, and the promise each new Pope brings to the world.
An old-fashioned, well-crafted suspense drama, Conclave will make you think and perhaps long for a future with more possibilities than we experience today. Like all good stories, the proceedings have a sense of fantasy, which fits, since religious faith is our way of imaging life beyond the day-to-day. We get to visualize our definition of heaven, whether here on earth or beyond. Conclave will keep you guessing until and beyond the end. If you haven’t already read the book, that may provide a way to continue the story.