Pope Watch: Conclave (2024)

Watched:  01/14/2025

Format:  Peacock

Viewing:  First

Director:  Edward Berger

All Christmas season long, Jamie's sister-in-law, K, kept lightly suggesting we go see Conclave (2024), and I was pretty direct in my opinion of "no, I do not want to see that".  But curiosity, gentle nudging and my Peacock subscription got the best of me, and I went ahead and watched it over two nights.

Conclave centers around the events that take place in the wake of the passing of a Pope, and the politicking among the clergy (cardinals) who are called together to determine who will be the next Pope.  

Sadly, it turns out there is no Catholic sorting hat to handle this task.

I will start by saying, there are many things I liked about this film.  As promised, the performances by Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, Isabella Rossellini, and many others are impeccable.  This movie is an opportunity for these actors to do amazing work - enough so that my immediate thought was "really, this would be a tremendous play" after the film ended.  A sort of 108 Angry Cardinals.  

The movie is beautifully shot.  I have no idea if this is accurate or how anyone actually lives and works in the Vatican, but given the video I've seen - sure, why not?  That said, the cinematography, costuming, lighting, etc... as well as sound design, are all meticulously considered.  For a movie about men over 50 in heavy robes, moving slowly, it still manages to have momentum and motion, and to capture moods and feelings in single shots, and manages to maintain tension and velocity from the first scene.

From the selection of Pope Benedict XVI and then Pope Francis, I am aware of the conclave and the basic mechanics that the public gets to see.  The puff of smoke that tells the public whether a vote has passed or not, etc...   And that the selection is maybe closer to how we were originally intended to choose a president - a small group of higher-ups sorting things out, compromising, etc... to find someone who will be tolerable in office.

And that's what the film tracks - the maneuvering and work done during conclave to select a new Pope from the highest in the Catholic Priesthood, all assembled and in the room.  They're served by Nuns, the silent partners of the Catholic Church, who should be seen and not heard and not a distraction - a bit of legacy of the paternalistic foundations of Catholicism that continue to exist.

In some ways, the story hits the thrilling beats you expect will be there.  Factions appear, mysteries and scandals brew.  But some bits surprised me.  What I can say is that even when I was nodding along with "well, yeah, you knew this was going to be a thing", I never doubted anyone in the cast for a moment.  It's been a minute since I watched a movie where the real spectacle was the assembled talent bouncing off of each other.

The characters are well defined on the page, and wonderfully cast and realized.  Seeing Stanley Tucci and Ralph Fiennes at work together is an absolute delight in every scene.  And while I haven't taken Fiennes for granted since Schindler's List, he's wildly believable in a role where his existing internal struggle *before* the events of the film is palpable and buyable, paired with the role of head of the Conclave, forced upon him.

SPOILERS (no really, don't read this unless you've seen the movie)

I am not of the Catholic faith, and so I can watch this movie as a drama about a byzantine process and human drama.  But I was kind of stunned by the ending, which I saw coming a mile away with the selection of Cardinal Benitez - really the minute he showed up.  And I think the movie certainly knows this is a possibility, so when they pivot to "and he's biologically mixed gender".  

As the process was saved by a single woman (Rossellini's Sister Agnes) the role of women is suddenly thrust upon Fiennes and the divine meaning it may have that a Pope is not physically imperfect, but how God made him, and somehow the most clear-eyed of any of the 108, with no aspirations to the role.  And what have they let women do?  Silently care for them?   While also showing more integrity than any of them? 

Anyway - I wasn't sure he movie would necessarily stick with me until the final revelation of the film, and that it leaves everything open ended about the future.  

How Catholics feel about it, I cannot imagine.  As someone outside the faith, who imagines this film may be underselling how punishing and rancorous the process actually is, it makes for great drama.  And for a fascinating demand for what the Catholic Church and Papacy could be.