The ending of the movie that makes Carlos Boyero laugh out loud | Culture

EL PAÍS film expert Carlos Boyero warns that religious stories do not wake him up, a prioria great interest: “My atheistic existence and my distaste for all types of churches since I was little means that the themes that develop in the Holy See initially arouse indifference in me.” However, to a large part of Conclave, film adaptation of a novel by the writer best sellers Robert Harris, in his criticism, grants it a certain intrigue and mystery, which disappear, of course, when the end arrives.

The film, starring Ralph Fiennes as the pope’s trusted man in a job, according to Boyero, “sober, internally tortured, truthful”, begins with the death of a Pontiff and the consequent election of a successor in mode thriller: “You perceive that everything is very confusing and you wonder how they are going to solve the enigma,” says the critic.

The supporting performances are also notable and partly responsible for how the film maintains its appeal for a while. Boyero points out “the formidable Stanley Tucci and the impeccable John Lithgow and Isabella Rossellini,” and praises Sergio Castellitto’s role as a fearsome cardinal who wants to resurrect the meanest side of the church.

The problem of Conclavesays Carlos Boyero in his review, comes as he approaches the end, with which he claims to have felt “an attack of astonishment and laughter at the daring nonsense with which they have resolved the long and stormy intrigue.” The outcome of Berger’s film seems to him “empty nonsense.” As he gets closer, he says, “you realize that this is going to be complicated, that the conjurer no longer has any pigeons or rabbits left under his hat.”

(Read the full review of Conclave signed by Carlos Boyero: The intrigue works but the ending is nonsense)