Sleek, confident and peppered with delicious portraits in pursuit, deceit and evasion, the carnival of papal intrigue known as “Conclave” works like gangbusters. It’s the best recent Agatha Christie adaptation not based on an Agatha Christie mystery, because it’s from a book by Robert Harris. I describe it that way not to mess with logic (that’s just a bonus), but to suggest something of the mechanics and payoffs at hand.
Finessed, adroitly, into screenplay form by Peter Straughan, streamlining the narrative of Harris’ 2016 bestseller, it’s a tasty election thriller with Ralph Fiennes fine-tuning his mastery of purring interrogative wiles.
He plays Cardinal Lawrence, sane, tolerant and ailing, charged with managing the film’s meticulously fraught process of naming a new pope in the wake of the sudden death of the old one. The results, directed with nearly comical panache by Edward Berger, make for a very enjoyable two-hour diversion from any other elections you might find preoccupying your head-space these days.
Berger is hot off his pile-driving remake of “All Quiet on the Western Front,” a film that doesn’t suggest immediate comparisons to “Conclave.” The way he and cinematographer Stéphane Fontaine snake through the Vatican’s halls, tracking Fiennes and his confidants and adversaries, it’s as if we’re back in the Great War trenches. While Cardinal Lawrence may argue with someone referring to his conclave as a war, Stanley Tucci’s humble Cardinal Bellini is there when we (and the trailers) need him to detonate the line: “It is a war!”
With the deceased pope’s quarters off-limits, along with whatever incriminating correspondence they might contain, Lawrence goes about his discreet wrangling of global competitors for the papal throne. “Conclave” arranges its key characters for a wide range of Roman Catholic ideology and belief, from Bellini on the side of the progressives, to the conservative traditionalist Tedesco (Sergio Castellitto), who hasn’t been the same since Vatican II.
Chief among the other aspirants to the papacy: From Nigeria, the popular candidate Adeyemi (Lucian Msamati), who if elected becomes the first Black pope. Tremblay, equally ambitious and played by John Lithgow, is among the first to offer his assistance and condolence to Lawrence. Also, because Lithgow can’t resist it and the role’s written that way for starters, the second he opens his mouth in an early scene of “Conclave” you know this fellow isn’t to be trusted. Lithgow’s so good, so often, and has been for decades. There are times, however, when playing a possibly duplicitous weasel that he forgets the “possibly” part. (It’s like the old line allegedly spoken by a Hollywood agent: “‘Hello,’ he lied.”)
On cue, the potential scandals introduce themselves, ranging from potential sexual abuse to blackmail to the late-breaking appearance of an unannounced cardinal with his own story to reveal. It’s in the trailer, and therefore not a spoiler, but “Conclave” also addresses religious terrorism in a manner aptly suited to a middlebrow pulp page-turner: with the most shameless coincidental timing of a huge explosion since who knows when.
Even so, director Berger pulls off paradox after paradox with this thing. It’s methodical and propulsive, classy and shameless, austere and juicy. If there’s still a theatrical audience for a popcorn movie made for adults, with only “thematic elements” and “smoking” attesting to its PG rating, “Conclave” will find it, and will likely be Oscar-nominated up, down and sideways because it’s old-fashioned and reassuring in ways that truly work. Fiennes’ reactive genius in small, side-eye moments is unparalleled. And as Sister Agnes, who knows so much more than she’s telling she can’t wait for the second half of the movie to spill, Isabella Rossellini dines out and orders seconds.
Berger’s attack on “All Quiet on the Western Front” felt like exactly that: an attack on material that needed more, and less, than brute force. With “Conclave,” high-grade pulp with a nod or two at bigger ideas about religion, the Catholic Church and tradition vs. the necessary shock of the new, he turns out to be perfect for the gig, playing into the fearsome formality of the proceedings and letting Fiennes lead the way through a make-believe election with very real rewards.
“Conclave” — 3.5 stars (out of 4)
MPA rating: PG (for thematic elements and smoking)
Running time: 2:00
How to watch: Premieres in theaters Thurs. Oct. 24
Michael Phillips is a Tribune critic.
