Papal politics take an unholy turn in the clever thriller 'Conclave'

In describing Conclave, I can't improve on the words of a friend, the Variety critic Guy Lodge, who suggested that this twisty piece of pope fiction should have been titled "Corpus Agatha Christi."

That sums up the movie’s paperback-thriller appeal and its dramatic limitations. Adapted from Robert Harris’ 2016 novel, Conclave isn’t a whodunit, exactly, although it does begin with the discovery of a body. The pope has died unexpectedly in his quarters, and the Sacred College of Cardinals will now hold a conclave to determine his successor.

The conclave will be overseen by Cardinal Lawrence, played by an excellent Ralph Fiennes. Lawrence has his work cut out for him. He’s having serious doubts about both his future in the Church and his personal faith, and his contentious and spiteful colleagues are not doing much to restore it.

Before long, the college will devolve into a cesspool of backbiting, infighting and ruthless smear campaigning. Perfectly timed for this nail-biting election season, in other words.

Things start off civilly enough, as cardinals from all over the world descend on Rome for the conclave. Stanley Tucci is expertly cast as Cardinal Bellini, Lawrence's longtime friend and ally who is favored to do well in the election. By turns catty and serious-minded, Bellini tells Lawrence that, "No sane man would want the papacy." But if Bellini were take himself out of the running, the next in line is Cardinal Tedesco — someone he can't stand.

Played with delectable comic menace by the Italian actor Sergio Castellitto, Tedesco is the kind of staunch traditionalist who still complains that the Church got rid of the Latin Mass. The more liberal-minded Bellini and Lawrence fear that Tedesco will take the Church backward if he’s elected; they want to see the Church make progress on gay rights, multi-faith unity and women in leadership — issues that of course bedevil Pope Francis’ reign in the present day.

But for all these high-minded gestures at topicality, Conclave isn’t really about the challenges facing Catholicism today. Nor is it about the clergy sexual-abuse scandals that continue to make headlines, and which the movie acknowledges in passing.

The director Edward Berger is in it mainly for the intricate puzzle-box plotting and the relentless political backstabbing. Berger previously directed All Quiet on the Western Front, and he stages Conclave as another kind of war movie, where words become weapons and even the cardinals’ seating arrangements begin to resemble battle formations.

One of these men will be the next head of the Church, and the options aren’t terribly inspiring. John Lithgow gives a wily performance as one of the college’s more popular and opportunistic members. Lucian Msamati oozes ambition as a cardinal who’s vying to become the first African pope in many centuries.

Conclave is a noisy movie; the actors chew and chew the Vatican scenery, and Volker Bertelmann’s score is as bombastic as an exorcism. I was grateful for the understated yet commanding presence of the divine Isabella Rossellini, making the most of a thin role as a nun who says little but sees everything. Equally welcome is the Mexican actor Carlos Diehz as a humble cardinal who’s led a dangerous ministry in Afghanistan. His motivations are among the movie’s more intriguing mysteries.

Berger is clearly having fun ushering us into the shadowy, cloistered world of the Vatican, complete with detailed re-creation of the Sistine Chapel. And Conclave is undeniably engrossing to watch as it shuffles and reshuffles the narrative deck and serves up one juicy cardinal-red herring after another.

While the story may be a parlor trick, there’s nothing phony about Fiennes’ performance as the movie’s troubled conscience, a thoughtful man of God experiencing a genuine crisis of faith. Fiennes makes Lawrence’s psychology intensely compelling, whether he’s stepping in to reprimand a wayward colleague or reluctantly considering the papacy himself.

Lawrence claims he doesn’t have the spiritual fortitude to be pope; his attitude is basically “Let this chalice pass from me.” But Bellini calls him out. Every cardinal harbors the ambition to be pope, he says, and has even secretly chosen the papal name by which he would like to be known.

Speaking of names: Lawrence’s first name, we learn early on, is Thomas, which means that he is, literally, a doubting Thomas. Like everything in Conclave, it’s clever — and a little too on-the-nose.