CONCLAVE

Review: Cardinal Lawrence is tasked with leading one of the world’s most secretive and ancient events which is selecting a new Pope. He is tasked with running this covert process while he discovers a trail of deep secrets left by the late Pope, which could shake the foundations of the Catholic Church.
Director: Edward Berger
Actors: Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, Lucian Msamati, Jacek Koman, Thomas Loibl, Brian F. O’Byrne, Isabella Rossellini, Rony Kramer, Sergio Castellitto, Carlos Diehz, Joseph Mydell, Vincenzo Failla, Garrick Hagon and Merab Ninidze
Year: 2024
Genre: Drama, Mystery and Thriller
Conclusion: 5/5
Directed by Edward Berger who also did All Quiet on the Western Front (2022). The one aspect that I liked about this film was that you saw the whole perspective through Ralph Fiennes’ character. Watching this I felt that he was very much enjoying his role. Ralph Fiennes doesn’t have as many lines to say as some of the others but you see everything through his facial expressions. This is a Bafta/Oscar performance from Ralph Fiennes. Stanley Tucci is terrific as the supporting actor. All of the performances across the board are at their top of their game. I liked it how it was filmed in an enclosed environment so that you never got a feeling of the outside world. I felt there was no time to breathe and no time to get bored. Isabella Rossellini doesn’t really have that much to do but all the scenes she is in I did find very moving and powerful. I very much enjoyed the script which was written by Peter Straughan whose other work incudes the amazing Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011) and more recently Frank (2014). An adaptation of a Robert Harris’s 2016 bestselling thriller. I think this is a film that all adults would enjoy and that you don’t have to be a Catholic to got the most out of. I found this to be a really powerful spiritual film. Most of all this is a film with immense faith. It is a thought provoking film which has a lot of memorable lines in it and which is well balanced between the different points of view. At the Golden Globe Awards 2025 this won for Best Screenplay, Motion Picture. At the Bafta Awards in 2025 this won four awards. They were for Adapted Screenplay, Best Film, Best Editing and Best Outstanding British Film. At the Academy Awards in 2025 this won one Oscar for Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay).