The Cardinal: A Heavy Lesson in Church Law and Regret

Is this thing worth your time?

Honestly, it depends on how much you enjoy watching people struggle to say the right thing in a room full of candles and stone walls. If you’re here for action, go watch Timber Terrors instead. But if you’re the type who likes to sit with a character while they slowly break under the weight of a secret, you might find something here.

The movie is a bit dusty, let’s be real. It moves at the pace of a slow Sunday mass. If you get bored when there isn't an explosion every five minutes, you’re going to hate this. My eyes started wandering to the wallpaper about thirty minutes in, but then Matheson Lang does something with his eyebrows and suddenly you’re back in it.

The weight of the robe

There’s this one scene where the Cardinal is just sitting there. He isn't doing anything. Just listening to the silence. You can almost see the gears turning in his head, the absolute terror of choosing between his soul and his own flesh and blood. It’s quiet. It’s almost too quiet.

The staging feels very much like a stage play that got lost on its way to a theater. Everything is centered, everything is framed like a painting. It works, mostly, but there are moments where I really wanted the camera to just shove its way into the mess. Instead, we keep our distance. It feels polite. Maybe a little too polite for a story about a murder.

• The costumes are incredibly stiff. I swear you can hear the fabric rustling over the dialogue.
• Some of the supporting cast seem to be in a completely different movie.
• The lighting is moody as all get out. It’s basically 90% shadow and 10% desperate prayer.

You can tell the director was really trying to hit that solemn, heavy tone. It works for the most part, though it lacks the frantic, raw energy you find in something like The Smiling Madame Beudet. That film felt like it was ready to explode. This one? This one is content to just smolder in the corner.

There's a specific bit where the Cardinal looks at his brother, and you know he wants to break the seal. He really, really wants to. But he doesn't. He just stares at the floor. It’s that small, pathetic look of defeat that makes the whole thing stick. It’s not grand, it’s not loud, but it’s real enough to make you feel a bit crummy yourself. 🕯️

It's not a perfect movie. Far from it. Some scenes drag on long after the point has been made, and a few of the secondary players feel like they're just reading their lines off a piece of parchment taped to the wall. But there’s a kernel of something genuinely sad in the center of it. Watch it if you want to be reminded that doing the 'right' thing is usually just a fancy way of saying you’re choosing which part of your heart you want to break.