The film Conclave’s premise is straightforward. The Pope has a heart attack and dies suddenly. Cardinal Lawrence (played well by Ralph Fiennes) is then tasked with setting up and conducting a conclave, a gathering of cardinals to elect a new pope. Ultimately, the contest comes down to four men: John Lithgow’s Cardinal Tremblay, Cardinal Tredesco (played with arrogant malice by Sergio Castellitto), Cardinal Adeyemi (Lucian Msamati, who steals the show) and Stanely Tucci’s Cardinal Bellini. A wild card is thrown in, in the form of Cardinal Benitez (Carlos Diehz), whom many didn’t even know was a cardinal.
Conclave starts off slow, but when it gets going it becomes clear that the election is a battle between Bellini and those who wish to continue the previous pope’s trajectory of modernization and reform of the Catholic Church, and Tredesco and others who decry the church’s “relativism”. There are secrets to be revealed and hidden plots to be uncovered, and for the first 90 minutes, Conclave delivers on its premise of mystery and suspense at the highest levels of the church.
In the last 30 minutes or so, the story take a turn for the worse.
An attack on Rome by Muslim extremists casts the election in almost absurd terms, causing Tredesco to declare that the church needs a leader who will wage “holy war” against the “animals.” In response, Benitez says that he knows nothing of war, and that the church is not its past or traditions, but what it does in the future. It’s the only time Benitez speaks in front of the other cardinals, and somehow it’s enough to earn him the papacy.
In the final twist of the film, the message of the film falls apart, despite attempts to reinforce it. After Cardinal Benitez is elected pope, it’s revealed that he is an intersex individual: despite presenting phenotypically as a male, he also has a uterus and ovaries. He tells Lawrence that the former pope was aware of his status and even privately paid for him to receive surgery to have the female parts removed before he decided to remain as God made him.
The overall message of the movie is that a more inclusive and open church is preferable to the conservatism of Adeyemi and Tedesco. But it feels like the Benitez reveal comes out of nowhere in the discussion of the church’s politics. Transgenderism and intersex status are not mentioned at all in the film until the last 15 minutes. The status of women is barely referenced at all, save for when Sister Agnes (Isabella Rossellini, doing so much with the little she’s given) momentarily refutes the invisibility of the sisterhood (in fact, the whole movie fails the Bechdel test), and even homosexuality is largely ignored except to paint Adeyemi as a reactionary.
Discussion of sex, gender and sexuality receive almost no screentime in the film. Tet ultimately they serve as the fulcrum on which the future of the church turns. The decision to make Benitez intersex feels more like checking off a box to affirm the church’s liberalism than a genuine gesture towards people the church has ignored.
The broad approach to liberalizing the church undermines the film. None of the drive towards liberalism is rooted in the characters or their motivations. Lawrence and Bellini speak in platitudes about acceptance and tolerance, but never put any emotional or intellectual skin in the game as to why those values are important to them personally. It’s in stark contrast to their discussions about ambition, where the true character of each man is revealed in convincing and entertaining ways.
The confrontation between Tedesco and Benitez, for example, could have been between any two cardinals in the conclave because the debate feels like one between historical forces- retrograde conservatism on one hand, and progressive liberalism on the other- instead of an impassioned debate between characters with contradictory worldviews.
The movie especially feels like propaganda for the Catholic Church in these moments. There’s lip service paid to the history of abuses by the church, but the takeaway is that the church is led by decent men who want to do better, honest.
Sure, I like to have my progressive tendencies catered to in the media I consume. But what I really wanted was a clash between personalities, cloak and dagger maneuvers and a drama deeply rooted in personal grievance and ambition. Instead, Conclave is determined to be on the right side of history, even if it has to flatten its characters and conflicts to do so. Which I suppose is laudable, but it’s not as entertaining as I had hoped.
