Ralph Fiennes is exceptional as a cardinal who must oversee the selection of a new Pope as skeletons in the closet threaten to derail the voting process, in Berger’s taut ‘mystery-thriller’ that some might feel too highly calibrated in its storytelling. 

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A follow-up to the terrific All Quiet on the Western Front (2023), Conclave reunites Oscar-winning composer Volker Bertelmann with director Edward Berger, both with a pretty good shot at landing Oscar nominations again. 

While not as bleak and gruelling as their WWI drama, Conclave sees them take on the Vatican as Ralph Fiennes plays Lawrence, an appointed cardinal who must oversee the selection of a new Pope after the previous one had passed on. 

So, the College of Cardinals is tasked with voting by ballot in a closed-door gathering that gives the film’s title its name. Although isolated from the outside world so as not to be influenced by external politics and events, it is the ‘inside world’ that Berger is most interested in. 

Cue the numerous skeletons in the closet as internal politics and shocking allegations and revelations threaten to derail the voting process.  Fiennes is exceptional and he will surely get his third Oscar nod with a rather restrained but deeply felt performance. 

“Let God grant us a Pope who sins and asks forgiveness and carries on.”

Caught in moral dilemmas he wished he had the God-given wisdom to navigate, Lawrence shows us that even men who deem themselves holy can have incapacitating doubts; they are also capable of sin and dirty political games as Berger’s ‘mystery-thriller’ builds tension in a slow-burning way. 

Bertelmann’s excellent score, which echoes the spirit of the late Johann Johannsson’s work on Sicario (2015), guides us to be wary of our surroundings. 

In these quiet grand halls and sealed rooms, there is a sense of mounting ominousness, best mirrored by Lawrence’s increasingly fraught-looking face. 

While tautly constructed, Conclave does sometimes feel too highly calibrated in its storytelling—you can see what Berger is doing with his film language and scene-by-scene development, though the narrative isn’t as predictable as you might imagine. 

If you love films about religiosity and politics like this, I can recommend another intriguing one—Boy from Heaven (2022), which I love even more.

Grade: B+

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