TIFF 2024: Conclave, Relay, The Assessment

There’s something twisty in the air. There were a number of films at TIFF this year that were designed to keep viewers on their toes, turning in so many different directions that I heard all three of the films in this dispatch referred to as “silly” by at least one fellow critic. The funny thing is how subjective one person’s silly can be because one of the films that falls into this category was one of the most enjoyable experiences I’ve had in a theater this year, while another bordered on torture.

One of my favorite films of Toronto 2024 was Edward Berger’s “Conclave,” a film I jokingly called “12 Angry Popes.” It’s not quite as confined to a single set as that classic jury room drama, but it does feature sequestered men arguing over the decision that will release them from their confinement. And it’s anchored by a truly powerful performance from one our best, Ralph Fiennes, who joins a phenomenal ensemble of character actors who just devour the rich, and, yes, sometimes pulpy dialogue from writer Peter Straughan. There’s one twist too many in this tale of skeletons in papal closets but I had been entertained enough by then to forgive the film’s final confession.

After a Pope dies, a Cardinal is tasked with overseeing the process of electing a new one. In this case, it’s the confident, progressive Cardinal Lawrence (Fiennes), who hopes that his colleagues will settles on Cardinal Bellini (Stanley Tucci), who shares the desire of Lawrence to move the church more fully into the 21^st century. It’s clear from early on however that Bellini may not have the right stuff for this gig, especially when he responds poorly to a progressive speech given by Lawrence, refusing to see his friend as an ally as much as competition. If Lawrence and Bellini split the progressive vote, the title could end up going to Cardinal Tedesco (Sergio Castellito), a righteously hateful man who believes that opening up the church to different races and genders has dragged it down. Read what you will to political issues in the U.S. and around the world regarding liberal vs. conservative thinking.

“Conclave” is a thriller built around conversation as different players in the game come forward to make themselves heard, and the debate leads to secrets being revealed. Was a Cardinal played by John Lithgow almost excommunicated before the Pope died and why? What should be made of the Cardinal from Afghanistan that no one seemed to know existed before today? And what role will a nun played by Isabella Rossellini play because you don’t cast a legend in a role like that if she’s not going to make an impact?

The director of “All Quiet on the Western Front” and his cinematographer, Stéphane Fontaine, find ways to make what could have been a visually dull chamber drama into a film that’s never boring, sliding their camera through the halls of the Vatican in a way that makes it both threatening and gorgeous at the same time. The whole cast works, especially Fiennes, but this is a screenwriting pleasure for this viewer, hooked on the sharp dialogue that places a different secret behind everyone who might be Pope. The numerous twists here are kind of intrinsic to the point. These men who are deciding the fate of the religious world are as flawed, maybe more, than those who hang on their every choice.

While the final twist of “Conclave” didn’t sink it for me, the last 15 minutes of David Mackenzie’s “Relay” are among the most ridiculous I’ve ever seen. One of the reasons for that could be that the previous 90 minutes didn’t really have their hooks in me either, feeling repetitive instead of thrilling and wasting the great talents of Riz Ahmed. However, I remember consciously thinking that if Mackenzie could land this high-wire act that maybe the dull patches of his film could be forgiven. Instead, the whole thing comes crashing to the ground in such a manner that it poisons what came before, making you question why you were supposed to care about any of it in the first place.

Ahmed plays Ash, a modern Robin Hood who uses his technological acumen to make the world a better place. He does so by protecting whistleblowers, often retrieving stolen documents from high-powered companies and brokering deals that keep his clients safe (and maybe even with a little cash for their trouble). He does so by staying so far off the radar that even those who pay him don’t speak to him—he works through a relay machine wherein telephone operators convey his text messages into speech. When Sarah Grant (Lily James) hires him to help return some internal documents without going to jail (or worse), Ash gets too attached to his newest client, making a few crucial mistakes along the way to a chaotic conclusion.

The director of “Hell or High Water” is clearly drawn to tales of the little man against a broken system, and that passion gives “Relay” some fuel for at least half of his runtime. While the relay sequences start to feel repetitive, Ahmed, James, and Sam Worthington (effective as the leader of a quartet of people working for the company that Sarah has betrayed) hold Mackenzie’s film together until, no exaggeration, everything comes apart at the seams. I’m usually not big on the critical argument that a bad ending can destroy a film, but “Relay” depends so completely on how it sticks the landing that watching it crash and burn was a truly depressing experience.

There’s less crash and burn in “The Assessment” because the endeavor is fire from the very beginning. Watching three talented performers give flat, unrealistic turns in this misanthropic sci-fi experiment is a truly dispiriting experience, but it’s because everything around them has been manufactured in such a way that everything they try to hold onto as performers simply slips through their fingers. Fleur Fortuné’s film moves pieces around a set but never once feels like it’s connecting with what’s it’s reaching for when it comes to parenthood, marriage, and the fragility of the human condition. There’s a decent idea buried in “The Assessment,” but it’s under so much unrealistic baggage that’s it’s increasingly difficult to see it.

Elizabeth Olsen and Himesh Patel play Mia and Aaryan, a couple who live in a truly bleak vision of the future, one in which resources have become so scarce that procreation is against the law. To have a child, a couple must undergo an intense application process, one that ends with an on-site assessment, conducted in this case by a cold presence named Virginia (Alicia Vikander). She demands access to everything about their lives as she moves in for a week and thrusts Mia and Aaryan into an increasingly ridiculous and intense series of tests. In most of them, Virginia acts like a child, throwing food around the kitchen, peeing on an adult, and doing other things that writers like to think replicate what it’s like to have a kid but don’t actually speak to anything regarding the actual difficult of parenthood (I should know. I have three.)

“The Assessment” feels like a deeply dishonest film, a movie that hates parenthood and marriage, and uses both for sci-fi thrills instead of saying anything truthful about their difficulty in an increasingly bleak world. Everyone involved is as fine as they can be—Olsen even better than that—but the performers are forced to play twists and avatars instead of actual human beings. It’s all so silly.