Cardinal Vices and Virtues

'Conclave' is the best movie I've seen this year

The first thing I’ll say about Conclave, which I saw last weekend, is that it’s a wildly entertaining movie—a combination of whodunit and political convention wrapped into one. You don’t need to know or care much about the Roman Catholic Church to find yourself almost immediately caught up in the drama. The fact that the movie is based on the 2016 Robert Harris novel of the same name is itself a badge of quality. Harris writes terrific historical fiction.

The second thing I’ll say about Conclave is that it overflows with great acting—versatile A-listers like Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, and less familiar but nevertheless heavyweight thespians like Sergio Castellitto. Isabella Rossellini (who now looks remarkably like her mother, the great Ingrid Bergman) is a marvel. And then there’s Ralph Fiennes. Fiennes, who played the greatest Nazi of all time in Schindler’s List, here plays a Lincolnesque embodiment of goodness as the Dean of the College of Cardinals. He’s almost impossibly versatile.

The third thing I’ll say about Conclave is that the picture, directed by Edward Berger—who helmed the rivetingly brutal 2022 version of All Quiet on the Western Front—captures the Vatican in all its granular majesty. There’s so much to take in, and camera work that allows you to savor so much of it. Part of which includes the diversity of the Church: “catholic” means universal. Say what you want about its politics and wickedness (which many of these characters do), Catholicism can make the rest of the world seem parochial by comparison.

The fourth thing I’ll say about Conclave is that I found the ending disappointing. Which is not to say predictable—I certainly didn’t see it coming. Hollywood values more than St. Peter’s values, shall we say. I understand and accept what the filmmakers are saying, and it’s fair in its way. I’ll leave it at that.

In any event, go see Conclave. It’s a rollicking good two hours of fun.