‘Conclave’ and ‘Heretic’: Saints and sinners

Heretic and Conclave

Just in time for the holiday season, two current films deal with the role of religion in modern life. Both hold forth on organized religion’s strengths and weaknesses, though widely divergent on the subject of spiritual expression. They do not hesitate to paint starkly dramatic views illustrating how original moralism has lost its moorings.

Conclave is a more conventional Hollywood depiction of corporate religion. Upon the death of the sitting Pope, the College of Cardinals assembles to select a successor. Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, and John Lithgow are among the cardinal all-stars. Isabella Rossellini, as Sister Agnes, ably backs them up, but in a style a bit too close to the Ladies Auxiliary model of subservient church women. It is the villain turn of Sergio Castellitto as the evil right-wing Cardinal Tedesco, however, that steals the show if not the papacy!

Director Edward Berger (All Quiet on the Western Front) does a reasonable job of wrangling Robert Harris’ eponymously named novel through the lavish sets of mock Sistine elegance. But it’s Lisy Christi’s resplendent 17th-century cardinal vestments’ commanding visions that rivet the eyes.

The narrative rollout doesn’t quite do justice to the visuals, though. Liberals battle conservatives, with paper ballots reflecting revelations of skeletons in cardinal closets with accompanying obligatory oratory to ensure that we make no mistakes rooting for our morality of choice. Clearly, the filmmakers favor a marginally more liberal line for the modern church.

Such meliorism and the entire hidebound construct casts a blind eye toward issues of abuse, women’s rights, and the role of gays and lesbians. Issues of global imperialism and workers’ rights are also ignored. This locates the “liberal” position well into the past century and confines the church to outmoded standards of progress. Do we really have to root for a church which cannot speak to modern life or thought?

Heretic, as its title might suggest, is not satisfied to provide mildly comfortable standard fare entertainment. The three-person play consists of Hugh Grant’s Mr. Reed and Sophie Thatcher (Yellow Jackets) and Chloe East (Kevin Saves the World) as Mormon missionaries Barnes and Paxton in a heated debate over issues of faith and spirituality.

Compared to Conclave’s complex convex of confections, Hugh Grant is tasked with single-handedly carrying the word of his religious apotheosis. Grant relishes the task. He is full of energy, vibrant in missionizing the two Mormon missionaries who end up on his doorstep. Grant infuses the film with the enjoyment he experiences playing the villain.

He ushers the young women into the obvious trap, baiting it with the certainties of their own religious convictions. The house itself is structured to reflect a religious puzzle, a test of faith. Will their philosophical debate lead to enlightenment or a more sinister conclusion? In either case, the missionaries, trained to proselytize, cannot resist.

Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, who both wrote and directed the film, also wrote and helped develop the screenplay, built around the blockbuster movie franchise A Quiet Place. This smaller, talky companion piece offered the auteurs the opportunity to delve deeper into spiritual issues, fear, and control. While entertaining, it would be difficult to say they used Heretic to avail themselves of that chance.

Both Conclave and Heretic are currently playing in motion picture theaters.

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CONTRIBUTOR

Michael Berkowitz

Michael Berkowitz, a veteran of the civil rights and anti-war movements, has been Land Use Planning Consultant to the government of China for many years. He taught Chinese and American History at the college level, worked with Eastern Kentucky Welfare Rights Org. with miners, and was an officer of SEIU.