Conclave Could've Been A Great Movie

With the recent passing of Pope Francis, the 2024 film Conclave couldn't be more relevant. It follows cardinals all over the globe joining together at the Vatican to elect a new pope, and this ultimately becomes a battle between upholding a progressive world order and regressing to a darker one. As Pope Francis himself was noted for his incredible humanity, the uncertainty following such a loss and the importance of selecting the right successor is well foreshadowed by this film's conflict and overall message. Yet because of all this potential and the gravity of its message, it's even more disappointing that Conclave doesn't quite hit the mark in its storytelling.

Ralph Fiennes as Cardinal Lawrence in Conclave

Conclave was the only Oscar-nominated film from this year that I really wanted to watch, other than A Real Pain. Even before I knew what the premise was, something about this film just piqued my interest, and truthfully, there was a lot about this film that did work. But because of that, I really expected better execution overall. This truly could've been a top film for me if only they had just taken more time to thoroughly revise their screenplay and fix the few amateur postproduction mistakes.

On the whole, the technical aspects of this film are actually quite good and the direction is mostly very thoughtful. It's not overshot or over-edited, allowing the story to just come through. The shots chosen are very intentional, and they cut at just the right moment between scenes and locations. The staircase conversation is a perfect example, taking us from the room to the stairs right away. The blocking and framing here is particularly well executed, not revealing everyone in the scene until it's time.

The cinematography isn't trying too hard to be flashy or over the top. Rather, it mostly just suits the story being told in each scene. I particularly liked the shots focused on each Tedesco and Lawrence separately when they are seated among others. Another notable moment is when each of the candidates are on their own as their vote count is called out and Adeyemi is just all by himself in the big room.

The thing that really stands out about this film is the sound design. It was mostly a very polished and meaningful contribution to the story, minus the two super loud scenes of everyone arguing that sounded a bit like fake crowd noise inserted in post. The editing is also very good overall. The only notable exception was the cut right after Lawrence said "I don't want your vote" — that was too fast. It should've given us just a moment on him before Benitez replied, "Nevertheless, you have it."

There are also a few times where the visual editing feels out of sync with the musical score. Plus, for the first half hour or so, even though the film is pretty good through this point, there's a very noticeable issue with the use of music. Sometimes it's fine, and other times it's just enormously overbearing. There are several moments where it feels like they're trying to create an ominous tone with the music, which just felt really unnecessary, though this does improve as the film progresses.

Another odd directional choice was the weird orange titles telling us "first day of conclave," "second day of conclave." We get it, they're having a conclave. It takes out the immersion a bit because titles just don't fit this type of film, and it ruins what would've been an organic flow between scenes anyway.

These issues are certainly very small, but that makes it even more annoying because most professional films don't make such mistakes. It's almost as if despite the level of confidence in the storytelling, there's a tiny hint of overcompensating, and that's really unnecessary for a work of this caliber.

Somewhat similarly, the screenplay does have many strong elements. The story and characters work for the most part, setting up an interesting political drama that keeps us engaged. Lawrence having to navigate characters like Tremblay and Tedesco and all the other cardinals is compelling, and uncovering Tremblay's corruption while watching Bellini's decline in popularity and eventual backing of Tremblay himself presents an incredibly complex situation: is it worth it to back someone so corrupt just to keep Tedesco's regressive views from the papacy?

At first, the thematic conflict is laid out in a pretty decent way. Tedesco's argument about being segregated by language and needing to go back to the way of Rome, plus Bellini talking about undoing 60 years of progress — it all feels very relevant to their own circumstances while also feeling timely for us. Maybe Tedesco's part was a bit too on the nose but it still works because these characters are discussing what they're currently dealing with in their situation. Sandino's line during the staircase discussion about them serving an ideal was also good, though they didn't need to follow with "we're mortal men, we're not ideal." We got that from the first line.

There are also a couple moments of dialogue very early on that aren't the best (maybe a bit too forward or awkward), but most of the dialogue is very good. Lawrence's homily in particular is fantastic; I was like "hell yeah" as he delivered it. Bellini suddenly coming for him afterward though felt manufactured. Even before this, I had a feeling Aldo was gonna turn out to not be this perfect guy, but the eventual revelation for Lawrence is really killer. His line, "Five times I cast my vote for you," is such a gut punch moment, like this man was really out here giving his all for you and look how you repaid him.

However. There is quite a bit that is WAY too on the nose. It feels so contrived that they added these bombings to the plot just to give Tedesco some scenes where he wants to target certain groups. Was there no other way to showcase his dangerous backwards mindset? Then Benitez's speech after Tedesco goes off is straight up just telling us what the message is, and weirdly enough, this single speech got Benitez the vote for pope. As soon as they had everyone clapping, I knew it would be for him, but it just felt so easy? Despite how much time we've invested in getting to know Lawrence and the main candidates, we don't know much about the general views of the others.

A comparable conflict that comes to mind is the in the film 12 Angry Men, which is also a numbers game where not only do we know the two extremes (guilty or not guilty), but we also know the various ideologies reflected by the jurors and why they each believe what they believe. I don't think Conclave needed to be exactly like that film, and we didn't need to know every single person's viewpoint, but it could certainly have crafted the plot in a way that would convey this push and pull between progression and regression beyond just the main candidates and their numbers.

Especially since this was such a political game for most of the film, it feels odd that one speech suddenly had everyone scrap that game in order to vote for the best guy. And while I do think it makes sense for this film to end with a candidate that reflects an optimism for the future (in fact, I prefer the optimism because Tedesco winning would've truly sucked), this needed more development woven into the narrative leading up to that final conclusion. Otherwise, this win for progress doesn't really give us that cathartic sense of relief that maybe things will work out.

It doesn't even end after this though. We find out Benitez is intersex and chose not to get surgery because that's how God made him, so he's used to being in between two worlds and therefore perfect for the job. Again, just telling us exactly what the message is. I guess it's interesting, but there was very little development of Benitez beyond what a good dude he is for the revelation to have any impact. I could see what they were going for, but it feels like he's literally just there for the sake of the theme and to add an extra bit of conflict for Lawrence as this mysterious new guy. It would've been better to get some more time with him, for him to play more of a role in the overall story. There's potential since he provides a new perspective as someone who's not familiar with the political atmosphere of the Vatican nor with the other cardinals and their ways, but all we get is a couple conversations and speeches and that's pretty much it.

As you can see, the thematic development overall is very surface level. The meat was there, but it just wasn't cooked enough. It felt like the story was still in an early screenplay draft stage where the plot, character, and thematic elements needed to be better thought out before being woven together. For example, we see Lawrence grieve the old Holy Father for two seconds, but they didn't really explore him navigating that grief alongside having to elect a replacement immediately. We know enough to know that the previous pope needed and trusted him to pull this off, we can understand the burden of this responsibility, but they didn't take these ideas any further. Especially the question of, can there ever be a right pope when they are all just humans, easily corruptible? I would've liked to see them explore the increasing pressure as candidate after candidate is revealed to be horribly wrong for the job, or do literally anything more because it feels like they had so much to work with and just didn't go all the way.

I felt similarly about Sister Agnes, like we definitely could've gotten more from her. The fact that I had to look up her name just shows how little of an impact there was. It doesn't help that I'm writing this like two months after watching and don't even have any notes about anything related to her to refer to. Yes, she was important to the plot as she provided Lawrence some needed assistance, but she mainly just has this one moment where she comes out and tells everyone "hey I know we nuns don't talk but we see and hear everything." Again, that's pretty much just telling us a theme they could've spent time exploring beyond a few shots of the nuns in the Vatican. If they'd given the screenplay more time to marinate, done more revising, then they wouldn't just need to tell us so much of what they want us to know.

Ironically, in my review of A Real Pain (and double ironically was written like three months after the viewing), I said I didn't mind the fact that the movie kind of just told us some stuff we needed to know. However, that was an entirely different sort of movie. Sure, they had some moments where the characters were openly discussing the themes or giving backstory, but it could be overlooked because the story and the vibe worked anyway. It's not like they were telling us these things in lieu of developing the characters' journeys, while in Conclave, these moments of just telling us the themes feel more like shortcuts replacing what should have been deeper thematic exploration woven thoroughly with a more complete plot and character development. For lack of a better word, the film almost feels unfinished — as if they tacked on the last chunk without taking the time to work through everything they needed to get there.

Because of this, I just didn't like the movie as much as I wanted to. I truly think they could've pushed it to that limit of becoming an amazing, top-tier, rewatchable film, but they didn't even come close. The groundwork is there: the constantly shifting politics and ideals within the Vatican reflected by the back and forth numbers game is a simple premise that carries a lot of conflict in and of itself. The scenes are mostly so well written to the point that no matter how many times the cardinals redo a vote and call names, you still feel compelled to watch rather than skip ahead.

But this isn't enough. While I do still recommend the film overall, it came so close to greatness while simultaneously lacking just enough in critical areas. It's not a bad movie by any means, but it just feels undercooked. With more attention to its character development, plotting, and thematic integration, Conclave could have been an amazing exploration of the ideals and fallibility of humanity and society on a small scale. If they had just gone back and fully stretched out that dough, maybe we could've gotten there.

So even though this film is better than some other things I've seen that were truly horrible, that makes it even more disappointing, especially considering that its message is incredibly imperative, and we need it now more than ever.