Conclave might, on paper, sound like a movie you wouldn’t enjoy but don’t be fooled. These messy little cardinals of the Catholic church live for the drama.
The new film by Edward Berger takes us into the selection of the new Pope. When the previous pope dies, Dean Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) is in charge of the “conclave.” That is essentially all of the cardinals in one room trying to decide who the next pick is going to be. You’d think that something like that would be pretty straight forward but what Conclave shows is that Catholics have their baggage and make it everyone else’s problem.
The battle for the title of Pope boils down to roughly 5 cardinals. With each new vote tally, the totals vary wildly from each other. And there is some big reveal for each guy up for the job. Honestly, my favorite part of this movie was just waiting to see what was about to be revealed about them. Personally, I would have let Cardinal Bellini (Stanley Tucci) take the job. Give us the progressive Pope we need.
Bellini didn’t want Cardinal Tedesco (Sergio Castellitto) to take the title because he was too outdated. Bellini thought Tedesco would take them back to the dark ages. On the reverse, Tedesco was mad about all the drama that the church was dealing with. If only any of these cardinals knew what they were in store for.
Honestly, I knew that the movie had petty guys fighting. People online called it Gossip Girl but about the Pope. Still, I wasn’t prepared for how all of these men were going to go about fighting with each other and it made me obsessed with the conclave process.
We should pick every elected official like this
Now, I’ve never picked a Pope myself but I do think this process is hilarious. Each cardinal had to write down the name of the cardinal they wanted to nominate. Then they walked up, gave a whole speech in another language, and dropped it in the bowl to vote. No wonder it takes forever to pick the next pope.
The issue with this election process in Conclave was the need to be “sequestered” and how it led to none of them knowing that bombs were literally going off in Rome. So just when you think the drama is inside the house, off goes a car bomb. To be honest, I really wish the Hot Priest (Andrew Scott) from Fleabag was there. That’d be the real kicker of this conclave.
In all seriousness, I just wasn’t expecting the drama that came with this movie. Watching Fiennes go up against John Lithgow was enough for me but at every turn, they had some sneaky little situation to deal with. Dean Lawrence ended up being a DETECTIVE by the end of it and I was obsessed with everyone second of it.
So if you were on the fence about seeing Conclave, do it. See the messy cardinals and all their drama. It is worth it.
