My review
Conclave
"No sane man would want the papacy!" says Cardinal Bellini (Stanley Tucci) in Edward Berger's new movie,
Conclave.
Indeed, it's hard to disagree with him after having watched the movie, which is obviously fictional but, if anything, probably
underestimates the level of intrigue that may actually take place in the middle of a papal conclave.
I had not been in much of a rush to watch this movie - I feared that it would be too talky, too stodgy, and perhaps a little sanctimonious in tone. Well, I was right about part of that, but the last third of the movie kind of redeems all that preceded it (No, I'm not going to spoil it!).
The biggest problems with Berger's new film, aside from the fact that it suffers in comparison to his previous one, is how dramatically uneven it is, and how - for the most part - predictable it is. Most of what happens can be seen coming miles away, or at least it was for me.
There is a clever twist thrown in - but, as I said before, no spoilers.
There's some good actors in the case, mostly Ralph Fiennes and Stanley Tucci, though I don't think they're given a chance to really shine; John Lithgow is dramatically misused as a cardinal who may not be as nice as you'd like to think. Isabella Rossellini is also wasted in one of the smallest talking parts of the film.
It's also a movie that's oddly uncinematic - a lot of it just looks drab and undistinguished. One of the cool things about it, though, is that parts of the movie were filmed in the Royal Palace of Caserta in Italy, which is doubling for the Vatican. This is the palace where the Naboo Castle scenes from
Star Wars Episode 1 were filmed almost a quarter-century ago.
Since I have not read the Robert Harris of the same name on which the film is based, I can't say how accurately it follows the source material, but a more cinematic adaptation would probably have helped.
It's still more likely than not that the film will receive some Oscar nominations, and perhaps Fiennes or one of the other guys in the film might win, but it would take more than a miracle for this to become an Oscar frontrunner.
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