Director: Edward Berger
Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, Sergio Castellitto, Isabella Rossellini
Certificate: 12A
Run Time: 120 mins

Conclave is a mystery thriller by Edward Berger, who directed All Quiet On The Western Front, which won four Oscars but I found it to be rather overrated. Based on a 2016 novel by Robert Harris, the film opens with the Pope dying of a heart attack and Cardinal Thomas Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) is tasked with organising a papal conclave to elect a successor. However, Lawrence quickly finds himself investigating secrets and scandals about each of the candidates. They include Aldo Bellini (Stanley Tucci), an ambitious American liberal, Joseph Tremblay (John Lithgow), a Canadian moderate with a secret, Goffredo Tedesco (Sergio Castellitto), an Italian reactionary right-winger and Joseph Adeyemi (Lycian Msamati), a Nigerian candidate with homophobic views.

Not dissimilar from many popular recent elections, Conclave is about deciding who is the least worst option and that’s what makes it rather entertaining. You’ll need to suspend disbelief (especially with its many twists) but if you’re after an overripe thriller filled with catty remarks, this delivers. Ralph Fiennes is reliably excellent as the overseer, who is also standing in the election and throughout the film, you’re constantly working out whether he has secret ambitions and if he’s as impartial as he should be. Sergio Castellitto, who was fantastic as the villainous King Miraz in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, turns his performance up to eleven as Tedesco and Isabella Rossellini also stands out as the head caterer and housekeeper who doesn’t have time for aimless chitchat. 

The jittery score by Volker Bertelmann (Hauschka) is fantastic and he crafts many memorable themes that add to the urgency of the election. Stéphane Fontaine lusciously shoots the film too, with excellent use of light and shadow to underscore the theme of corruption. 

But as entertaining as Conclave is, I’m not sure it’s quite the awards material it looks like it may become. None of the performances are career-best work from anyone (as committed as they are) and it isn’t particularly profound. Treat Conclave as the rousing thriller it is where old men in mitres run around making snide remarks and backstab each other, but nothing more.