Conclave ★★★½
RALPH Fiennes continues to be a little under-rated.
In nearly 100 performances across three decades, he has rarely given a bad one.
Schindler’s List, Quiz Show, Strange Days, The English Patient, Oscar and Lucinda, Red Dragon, The Constant Gardener, In Bruges, The Reader, Great Expectations, Hail! Ceaser, The Menu, The Forgiven and of course the Harry Potter films.
There is a half dozen other titles I could name that demonstrate not just the quality of acting, but the range of genres Fiennes has successfully worked across.
In 2024’s Conclave he is again excellent as Thomas Lawrence, a Cardinal working in the Vatican, who is given the responsibility of running the election of a new Pope.
The script is a mostly faithful (see what I did there) adaptation of a 2016 novel by Robert Harris about the drama that engulfs the papal voting system, known as a Conclave.
Lawrence is the unwitting central figure who has to deal with the intrigue, politics, scandal and mystery when more than 100 Cardinals from around the world are sequestered behind locked doors to elect their religion’s spiritual successor.
Like any election of major consequence, there are several candidates vying for ascendancy and control, including nominees from the Americas, Europe and Africa, all with differing views of how the Church is faltering and should be run.
As the conflict becomes sharper, so too do the lengths to which candidates will raise and question the public positions and private lives of their rivals.
Fiennes is joined in the film by a strong cast including Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, Isabella Rossellini, Lucian Msamati and Sergio Castellitto.
German director Edward Berger, who is best known for his recent version of All Quiet on the Western Front, further enhances his reputation with the ability to film people talking to each other in dark corridors in a way that creates atmosphere and tension. Volker Bertelmann’s music lifts every scene.
Don’t let anyone reveal the twist in the climax – it’s a ripper.
Watched at the cinema.