When Cardinal Lawrence is tasked with leading one of the world's most secretive and ancient events, selecting a new Pope, he finds himself at the center of a conspiracy that could shake the very foundation of the Catholic Church. (from IMDB)

Intention plays such a huge part in everything we do. Why do we do something? What drives us to do it? Is it out of selfish ambition? Is it in an effort to help others? Is it based out of personal experience? These are all things that come to mind when experiencing the film Conclave. From the start, the movie has an artsy feel and direction that makes it intriguing to watch, but is that all just glitz to distract viewers away from something darker lurking under the surface?

The heart of Conclave actually seems to be laid out pretty clearly in front of us. The story involves a modern day representation of the Catholic church and what all goes into selecting a new pope after one dies. The process - which is almost like what is seen in a courtroom - is done through a ceremony called a conclave where cardinals are sequestered and forced to vote for a successor over and over until one candidate receives the required votes. All Quiet on the Western Front director Edward Berger takes the source material of a 2016 novel by Robert Harris with the intent of sharing a peek behind the curtain of this intricate process. It's obvious pretty early on that Berger has an agenda here. While the Catholic church is not without its problems or scandals over the years - it's hardly a perfect institution - there seems to be a goal here to expose these men, who are trying to live their lives dedicated to the Lord, as selfish men with ambition for power. Sure, I bet that happens, but there's a certain cynicality to Berger's handling of this subject.

From the start, the pope (AKA "The Holy Father," as they call him) is dead. Acclaimed actor Ralph Fiennes plays the central character, Dean Lawrence (changed from an Italian character in the book to an American one here). While Fiennes delivers an earnest performance, his demeanor and sustained facial scowl almost always look like he thinks he's playing Ebenezer Scrooge instead. It's odd to be following a main character who wears the shifty-eyed grimace of one who suspects everyone in the room is out to get him. Stanley Tucci also plays an American cardinal, Bellini - with far more zeal, I might add - who sees instilling liberal values in the Catholic church as a win for progress, and is vehemently against the idea of an Italian cardinal, Tedesco (played by Sergio Castellitto), rising in the ranks to return the church more to its old school roots (and it's at this point that the movie starts to have some seriosu modern day political parallel vibes). Berger treats the material as a thriller, which on paper sounds silly since it's about appointing a new pope, but makes sense in the context of watching the film. The music, which seems lifted out of an episode of LOST, has a dark and ominous feel to it. The thriller vibes hinge on the secrets and power struggle behind every candidate, and as Lawrence discovers some dirt under the robes of his comrades, the movie leans into this moral ambiguity for intrigue. When you step back and evaluate the film as a whole, it's evident that we're given a beautifully shot, excellently acted drama, but what is it really trying to say?

One of the more important sequences has the men sitting in a room arguing about what their purpose - as a church - in this world should be, and what message Christ conveyed during his time here on earth. (In an earlier scene, emphasis is placed on how even Jesus had doubts in his faith by quoting His words to God on the cross, "Why have you forsaken me?") Sure, Christian films tend to offer a bit of a candycoated representation of Christianity in an effort to present the gospel message, but Conclave goes a much darker route, painting men of the cloth as almost all selfish, hypocritical heathens. The single character who is painted in an entirely positive light is given such a bizarre trait - revealed in the film's ending "twist" - that you really have to wonder what in the world the intentions behind this film are. If Berger wants people to think, there's plenty here to talk about and chew on, but the fact there seems to be an agenda here - and maybe even just controversy for controversy's sake - it's hard to not take Berger's efforts here seriously. And it's almost like he's playing Devil's advocate here with the sole purpose of stirring up the proverbial hornet's nest of the Christian faith. It's as if he gleefully dropped a real hair-raiser of a hot topic into a room of people he knew it'd rile up and just exits, allowing the discord to do its damage. Sure, this is all speculation here, but I genuinely got an icky feeling in my soul about the film's intent while watching it.

For the sake of full disclosure and conversation to lay out all the cards for you, I'll reveal the controversial twist in this paragraph. If you don't want to know it, you can skip this paragraph and move on. If you do want to know, and in greater detail, read on. In the aforementioned scene where the men are arguing about the purpose for the church and their place in society, a cardinal named Benitez stands up and offers a contrary message of peace to his brothers. Now, the thing about Benitez is, earlier in the film, he had appeared at the conclave mysteriously, with an ambiguous past that is just as perplexing, causing many of the cardinals to question just how he had been appointed a cardinal in the first place. His message of peace amidst their quarreling causes most of the conclave to stop taking sides and almost unanimously vote in favor of Benitez - who, up until that point, had only received just a couple votes. And the ceremony ends in excitement for the group and relief for Dean Lawrence. It's then, coincidently, that Lawrence is approached with scandalous news about Benitez. The scene cuts to Lawrence approaching Benitez alone about a mysterious medical procedure he apparently had at some point. Benitez reveals that he did not have the surgery, and in fact decided to keep the uterus and ovaries that a doctor had found in him. He assures Lawrence that he wanted to stay as God had made him. And so the film ends with a pope who has both male and female reproductive parts. This begs the question: why? What is the purpose of such a controversial revelation? It clearly is presented for the sake of stirring up controversy. And the absurdity of the situation feels all the more questionable. Again, it's the intent behind it that is most troubling. Earlier in the film, there was an Italian not wanting a black pope, an American selfishly revealing a scandal in the black pope's distant past in order to disqualify him, and multiple Americans who want their liberal and progressive agenda to prevail over the Italian's more bigoted and traditional agenda. A lot of ugly sides of these cardinals are portrayed, leaving the kindest and most squeaky-clean of the bunch to have a controversial reproductive predicament. And even more curious is the PG-rating of the film. There's nothing about the film that feels family friendly, and the thematic nature of the film should have been PG-13, if not R. (Plus, no kid is going to want to sit through this tortoise-paced drama, no matter how lovely its cinematography may be.)

So, content-wise, Conclave, while curiously rated PG, is a very mature film thematically. The movie opens with the pope's death and then the camera focuses on him being zipped up in a body bag and plopped onto a stretcher. The camera then follows him into the back of a hearse and holds on his dead body, partially visible through the translucent body bag, as it rocks back and forth to the sway of the moving vehicle. Berger holds the camera on this to reveal the film's title and then awkwardly holds it for what feels gratuitously and uncomfortably long. If his goal was to create a sense of dread and to focus on the mortality of the church's revered pope, he accomplished his goal. There is some use of God's name as an exclamation a few times, and two minor uses of "hell" to describe a situation. Thematically, a sexual scandal is talked about, as well as fleeting references to child molestation and other sexual scandals in the church's history. It becomes an essential sequence when a woman is confronted about her association with one of the cardinals, and it is revealed that the man had relations with her when she was 19 and he was 30 - and they even have a child together. Then there's question as to the motives of one of the cardinals who the pope apparently tried to denounce before his death, with talk about his questionable deeds also being focused on. Lastly, and I have to reveal a little about the big controversial reveal to effectively address the film's content, it's focused on that a man of the cloth is revealed to have the reproductive organs of both genders. It's a surprise reveal, and is used to question society's view of gender definition and how that comes into play with church leadership. It's such a massive topic to address, but the movie just drops it at our feet and ends on that note.

If you have prejudices against the Catholic church, this movie will only enforce them. It's not a flattering look at the Catholic church, and in many ways, is not a positive look at anyone trying to live their lives dedicated to Christ either - as people of the cloth or not. This feels like a film made with an ax to grind with the church (if not Christians entirely), and while sinners abound in all areas of all denominations as we try to live our lives for our Savior, it seems as if Conclave is made with more negative views of this walk of life, with very little that's redemptive about it. (And, to be fair, I'm sure plenty of viewers would disagree depending on their political, social, and spiritual beliefs, so to each their own.)

Conclave, while an artsy, well-filmed and crafted drama, feels like a cynical peek behind the curtain of the Catholic church, and in many ways, the Christian faith. Heaven knows ugly deeds have been performed in the name of Jesus for generations around the globe, but this film clearly has an agenda in exposing the weaknesses in the faith and the people who represent it. If you want some hard topics to ponder and talk about, Conclave will give you those, but if you'd like to avoid a film about faith and the men trying to represent it, you'll find nothing but this cynical film made with questionable intentions.

Conclave is available now at digital retailers. It comes with a couple extras, a feature-length commentary and one behind-the-scenes featurette:

Sequestered: Inside Conclave (16:49) is the lone featurette, which mentions the book it was drawn from, as well as some of the differences between the book's characters and the ones in the film. But the majority of the featurette focuses on the cast, highlighting the main players, and filming on location in Rome. We also learn that they recreated the famed Sistine chapel on a sound stage to film in.