Conclave (2024) and a Game of Chess | A Movie Review

In the opening sequences of the film, Edward Berger, director of Conclave (2024) leaves his pistol, forming the central metaphor for the movie. The Pope has just died and Cardinal Bellini (Stanley Tucci) sits with Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes), grieving the loss. The dialogue is too important to paraphrase, so I will quote it to you. 

“Do you think anybody would mind If I took that?” Cardinal Bellini said, pointing to a chessboard. “Because we used to play quite often in the evenings.”

“Of course...and who won?” Cardinal Lawrence asked.

“Oh, he did. He was always eight moves ahead of you.”

Bam! In one conversation, Edward Berger has shown us the heart of the movie, for this is a story of strategy: mortal against mortal, a meditation on ambition and power. 

WARNING: SPOILER'S AHEAD

Locked Up

Plot-wise, you cannot go wrong locking people in a confined space with a vexing conflict. More often than not, what you come away with is an illumination of human nature. Just think of Sidney Lumet’s Twelve Angry Men, where the writer locks jurors in a jury room, until they arrive at a verdict. 

In a similar fashion, Conclave locks the Cardinals in the Sistine Chapel. Secluded from the outside world, the Church delegates them with a monumental responsibility: electing the new Pope. The Dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) may have the most difficult job of all: managing them. The timing could not be worse, for he is facing his own personal crisis of doubt. We find out he even asked the former Pope to release him from his duties, but he refused. 

With many jabs at the American political system and our recent election, this film really is a political drama - just set in the capital of the Roman Church. The film does an excellent job revealing the layers of our characters. From the beginning, we see Cardinals decrying the opportunity to become the Holy Pontiff. For many, their humility is but a smokescreen and their ambition rages inside them. 

We soon see allegiances forming based on their theological and political convictions, ranging from conservative to liberal. The latter arises through Cardinal Bellini (Stanley Tucci) who is clear that he has a progressive vision for the Church, which includes more involvement for women and inclusiveness for the LGBTQ+. At the other end of the spectrum is the Italian Cardinal Tedesco who argues the Church has lost its way. The answer is to move more conservative, even wishing the Church would return the Mass to Latin.

Though Cardinal Lawrence (Fiennes) sides with Bellini (Tucci), he does an honorable job as Dean of the College of Cardinals, trying to remain neutral and guide the conclave to recognize God’s direction in the manner. 

Who is the Chessmaster?

But the question continues to arise: Is God working the chess board or human strategists, because unexpected events keep happening? An unknown man claiming to be the Cardinal of Kabul shows up who the Pope supposedly ordained but kept secret. A woman arrives out of nowhere, causing strife with a Cardinal, exposing indiscretions of the past. A car bomb erupts outside the Vatican. A secret report shows up in the late Pope’s chambers. And so on.

One by one, some revelation disqualifies key Cardinals from the race. And as the movie comes to an end, we wonder if the person directing the drama is actually Cardinal Lawrence. In a tense scene, Cardinal Tremblay (John Lithgow) tells him, “You should be careful, Thomas. Your own ambition has not gone unnoticed.”

With less than ten minutes of the movie left it looks like Cardinal Lawrence will become the next Pope, but with a last-minute twist, in response to a car bomb shattering windows in the Sistine Chapel, the obscure Cardinal Benitez of Kabul delivers an impassioned and progressive speech, clinching his role as the next Pope. Fresh wind and light coming through windows signifies that the Holy Spirit is moving.

The Odd and Contrived Turn

But the twists are not over as Cardinal Lawrence discovers the soon-to-be ruler of the Roman Church has a secret. And this is where things get strange…

Several years ago, Cardinal Benitez had scheduled an appointment for a surgery to fix his condition as an intersex person. He never went through with it, realizing this is how God had made him. Even more shocking, the former Pope knew all about this! 

Was this the former Pope’s plan the entire time? I think so. Now from the grave, the former Pope has finished the chess game with a resounding “check mate”! 

Ever heard of the term deus ex machina? It means “God in the machine,” and it derives from the Greek dramatists who, at the end of a drama, would fly a god (or the gods) in from behind the set to fix the conflict. For writers, this is a no-no, a contrived way to resolve the plot difficulties. And this is what we have in the ending scene of Conclave. 

Despite the movie’s clear agenda: if the Church is to survive, they must move into the 21st century, critics have blasted its ending. Dana Stevens in Slate wrote, “My review of Conclave got heavily into spoilers…because it seemed impossible to appreciate that movie’s lush, solemn silliness without a nod at its parting swerve into the land of “Whaaaa?” 

How easy it is for critics of all worldviews to slice and dice “Christian” films for preaching in their stories. (And I don’t always disagree). But what we have at the end of Conclave is the same: storytellers dragging a pulpit onto the movie set. Enter our sanctuary, dear moviegoers, your sermon is about to begin. 

When the film ended, I was angry!

But as time passed, and I reflected on the film in its entirety, I realized that 90-95% of Conclave is excellent.

Sure, I disagree with the progressive worldview, but the filmmaker has assembled a tremendous ensemble of actors, matching it with beautiful cinematography, a haunting soundtrack, and an insightful reminder to wade carefully into the waters of ambition, especially when pursuing the Kingdom of God.

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Dane Bundy is president of Stage & Story and Director of Fine Arts at Regents School of Austin, a K-12 classical Christian school in Austin, Texas.