Conclave
The Pope's recent passing had people recommending this movie. I'm not Catholic, but I can read so I kind of knew how electing a new Pope works. I didn't expect the Borgias' treatment of a conclave, but I did expect some version of that especially when the movie is billed as a" political thriller."
Did we have politics? Um...some. Was it a thriller? Hell no.
The cast was solid, but not much acting was required. Given the subject matter I expected a slow, quiet movie and this delivered. I didn't expect what we received. This thing plodded along. We didn't have much politics and we sure didn't have a thriller. This was like pouring cold syrup on a pancake: eventually it will get there, but you're real tired of squeezing the bottle.
The pace wasn't helped by the lengthy atmosphere shots. There's an overhead of the cardinals entering a plaza with white umbrellas that took forever. Shot of plazas and courtyards to set up a conversation were monotonous and overused. And Ralph Fiennes' breathing? Hail Mary, full of WTF was the director thinking? Those criticisms aside, the camera work was excellent as was setting the mood once the cardinals were sequestered. Stunning visuals, but we need to linger on them?
But the biggest problem was the ending. I won't spoil it, but they had to go THERE? Was that the original ending? One conversation to setup the final scene? Really?
I expected slow, not this slow. I expected intrigue, I was rewarded with two half-assed stories that advanced the plot but were tame. The ending was either rushed or tacked on, it wasn't satisfying. And the critics who lined up to praise this movie tells me all I need to know about modern Hollywood.
2 out of 5 nuns in the background.
