TIFF 2024 Review: Conclave

Politics and scandals unfold in the Vatican while the cardinals are sequestered to elect a new pope. 

An unexpected death of the Pope means a conclave of cardinals from around the world must be called to decide who will be the next papal leader.  Orchestrating the election is Cardinal Lawrence and in the process of doing so he has to unravel a steady stream of secrets that emerge which will have an impact on the electoral result with the last one being a real doozy.

Undoubtedly as with any election even ones involving religious institutions, ambition leads to unethical tactics to discredit potential rivals.  This element is believable and the fact that the voters are divided between being conservatives, liberals and moderates attempting to control the future of the church and reshape it into their image.  What pushes the creditability of the storytelling are the constant plot twists and what they are about which makes it a paler imitation of the social-political expertise of John Le Carré and Graham Greene, and is more along the pulpier qualities of Frederick Forsyth.

Always reliable as an actor is Stanley Tucci and Ralph Fiennes does a believable job of playing the bewildered protagonist trying to keep everything together but obstacles keep popping up.  Driving the suspense is the musical score by Volker Bertelmann and sound design and mixing by Ben Baird and Valentino Gianni that add exclamation marks to moments which will probably mean an Oscar nomination for both categories.   The cinematography lensed by Stéphane Fontaine has a painterly composition aesthetic that contributes pomp and circumstance to the imagery and the production design by Suzie Davies places the viewer in the middle of the Vatican.  Unfortunately, the narrative does hit the same heights of the artistic craftmanship.

The 49th Toronto International Film Festival runs September 5-15, 2024, and for more information visit tiff.net.    

Trevor Hogg is a freelance video editor and writer who currently resides in Canada; he can be found at LinkedIn.