David at the Movies: the Papal Talent Show
CONCLAVE
Conclave has attracted 4- and 5-star reviews, so I expected it to be good, and it is. The recreated Sistine Chapel is glorious and, bursting with red-robed cardinals, I got a few flashbacks to TV’s Handmaids. Ralph Fiennes is Cardinal Lawrence, the Dean, charged with chairing the election of a new Pope; Stanley Tucci is his closest ally and John Lithgow his nemesis. All three are on top form, as is everybody in the cast. Only a handful of nuns are allowed to attend to the cardinals, so no big female parts, although Isabella Rossellini is given a key speech and is still a radiant beauty at 72.
Robert Harris writes great thrillers, and the screenplay keeps all the conspiracy elements, so that a very “talky” tale has tension all the way and moments of great excitement. If you haven’t read the book, I think the climax will surprise you; it knocked me for six.
The actors and all concerned should be grateful that the Vatican no longer issues the Papal equivalent of a “fatwa“. It used to.
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Technical issues kept my website offline for a few weeks. Here’s a brief update on the movies I’ve seen:
SALEM’S LOT
HERETIC
Two young female Mormon missionaries call at the house of Mr Reed down a country lane to peddle their brand of faith and soon wish they hadn’t.
The casting of Hugh Grant and the religious debating are clearly intended to give Heretic some extra “gravitas”, which works in the Upstairs chapter of the story, but Downstairs is a dark and dismal place where the movie and Mr Reed descend into Torture Porn, where so many modern horror movies take us.
Casting Grant elevates Mr Reed, but I’m not sure that playing Reed elevates Mr Grant.
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GLADIATOR II
First the good news: as sequels go, this is better than most. And the way the screenplay slowly increases the links to the Russell Crowe version is quite neatly done. The bad news: almost everything is in a kind of desperate overdrive. There are twice as many gladiator fights and twice as many sea battles.
Paul Mescal does a brave job stepping into Russell Crowe’s sandals, but although he’s younger and cuter and more buff, his Lucius lacks the solidity and the gravitas that Crowe brought to Maximus. The sets, whether they’re CGI or fibreboard, are almost worthy of Liz Taylor’s Cleopatra, but the script is too long.
There is twice the violence of Part One, but there isn’t twice the resonance. We’re often told that Less is More; here More is quite a lot Less.