Director Edward Berger had one of the buzziest titles of 2023, with his war drama “All Quiet on the Western Front” going on to triumph spectacularly in the award season including the Oscars. “Conclave” brings him back to the spotlight. The papal thriller premiered at the Telluride Film Festival, gathering raves. It has already kick-started awards consideration for its lead actor Ralph Fiennes. Adapted by Peter Straughan from the 2016 Robert Harris novel, “Conclave” (2024) is a tight, compelling work, focused on slow revelations and illuminating flashes of character.
There is a scattering of twists, with a massive one reserved for the end that reorients the picture in a positive, future-embracing direction. But Berger, wisely, underplays them, buttressing them in a way that shines a light on personal growth and unmasking ambition, agenda, and follies of rash decisions. Fiennes gets to burst intermittently, unleashing frustration but it’s a performance mostly grounded in a subtle, artful concealment. His character closely observes his surroundings and the desires of men. He doesn’t want to reflect any glimpse into his own accruing ambition for the throne.
Conclave (2024) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
The film opens with Fiennes’ character, Thomas Lawrence. The setting is the Vatican. It’s a moment of great turmoil and unrest. The Pope has just died. What lies next? Certainly, the election of the new Pope is the most pressing point on the cards. The film surveys the ensuing couple of weeks when the Conclave is set up. Cardinals invited from all over the world have come in. The space of the Vatican has become a great meeting point but also one that grotesquely exposes a whole host of clashing ambitions and subtle yet intense power play advanced by various stakeholders.
Presiding over the proceedings, and managing everything is Lawrence. He has to take care of the cardinals’ arrangements and satisfy their individual well-being while making them work towards the collective brighter future of the Church. There are tiffs between Cardinal Bellini, an American priest who espouses liberal views. He is expressly tolerant of queerness and other faiths, while the other leading contender, Tedesco avows an unapologetically conservative Catholicism. There’s also Adeyemi, from Nigeria. Disrupting the mix comes a Mexican priest, Benitez, who served a ministry in Kabul. This was only known to the late Pope. It surprises almost every other cardinal in the Vatican.
Lawrence admits he has no ambitions of becoming Pope. He shares with everyone in private confidence how he has been grappling with difficulties in praying. This doesn’t make him a deserving contender for the Pope. He is a quiet observer of the loaded, powerful tussle that plays out before him. Every cardinal professes to be understanding and generous about the responsibility of steering the Papacy, should they be elected. Lawrence tells Benitez he hopes to resign as Dean once the election duty is over.
Why do Adeyemi’s chances take a beating?
“Conclave” is a simmering study of the growing factionalism, inner circles that sprout within the Vatican or any community for that matter. Lawrence discovers there has been a withdrawn report about Cardinal Tremblay, which is what the late Pope had discussed in his last meeting with him. Many secrets tumble out into the fore.
The many rounds of votes begin. Adeyemi emerges as the front-runner, though initially there’s no clear majority in the beginning. There’s an incident at lunch when a nun drops her tray. Sister Agnes tries to prevent Lawrence from investigating the matter but he persists. He discovers Adeyemi’s illicit past. He has had a secret child stowed away, a relationship with a far younger woman than him, from years ago. Adeyemi insists it was a lapse in the case of Sister Shanumi and a lot of time has passed since. But an error is an error. He was 30, she was 19. Lawrence employs his soft, brutal stabs, plainly laying it that Adeyemi will never be Pope. Soon, rumors will spread about his association.
Lawrence goes digging even further. He convinces Sister Agnes to give him private tech access and plants the idea that it was Tremblay who had arranged for Sister Shanumi to be brought to the Vatican. Lawrence also finds incriminating evidence in the late Pope’s apartment that indicates Tremblay is guilty of simony. Yet, Tremblay and Lawrence remain strong contenders for the throne.
Close to the final ballot, an explosion happens at the Piazza. Many are killed and injured. It inflames Cardinal Tedesco who uses it as an opportunity to rail forth all his conservative, hardline hate and intolerance of other faiths. However, it is Benitez’s impassioned speech calling for the removal of such hate, which isn’t much different from the rhetoric espoused by extremists.
Conclave (2024) Movie Ending Explained:
Who is elected the Pope?
This speech of Benitez and his quiet, kind appeal makes him the ultimate winner for the seat of the Pope. However, a big secret is yet to be popped. An anxious Monsignor reveals to Lawrence that the late Pope had arranged for Benitez to go to Switzerland. The ascertained place in question was a clinic.
Lawrence immediately goes to Benitez, asking the reason behind the clinic visit. It is then that Benitez reveals he was considering a treatment of laparoscopic hysterectomy. He was born intersex, with a uterus and ovaries alongside male organs. In the seminary, raised alongside boys, he didn’t have the scope to explore. It was only during an appendix operation he found out about it. Hence biological femininity was discovered at a later stage. The late Pope knew about this and arranged for the Switzerland trip so that he could remove his female organs. The late Pope wished for him to be the successor.
But ultimately Benitez decides against making the trip. He insists on acceptance as God made him. He tells Lawrence that he perfectly knows what it’s like living between certainties. Lawrence is initially shocked at this disclosure but accepts it. The ending of “Conclave” is full of the positive embrace of change and acceptance, gesturing beyond the stasis of the old ways and their implicit divisiveness. To have someone like Benitez becoming the Pope is a big step in a bold new direction towards a more hopeful future.
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