Conclave (2024) Review

When Cardinal Lawrence is tasked with leading one of the world’s most secretive and ancient events of selecting a new Pope he finds himself at the centre of so many conspiracies and potential issues.

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The unexpected death of the beloved Pope would see events put into motion that could truly shake the Catholic Church to the core, as the most powerful leaders from all around the world arrive at the Vatican and are locked in together in the Sistine Chapel while the voting takes place.

I am not by any means relgious and therefore the selection process of a new Pope was not something that I had ever thought about, although now at the very least myself and I guess many others now know the process is called Conclave. This film was not really top of my wanting to watch list, because of my lack of faith I truly find relgious films to be tough to watch. However, I am very happy to report that I was very wrong about this one. The thrilling nature of it all is extremely engaging and quite frankly you even forget that religion is at its core and what the voting is all about.

We are thrown into a crazy world that demonstrates even the men in the highest possible positions in a religion will stop at nothing to reach the very top. Showing that it is very much a political battle and to some extent a popularity contest. We become engrossed in it all and live it through Lawrence, with the moral dilemmas he is put up against and not having all of the information at times while doing his uttermost to keep everything in order. It also highlights how people conform due to where they are from and this is highlighted by the many languages and how those gravitate towards one another.

It does have a very twists and turns throughout, like any voting process the person in the lead is always looked into closely that was no different in throughout the film. The gender bias towards men within the Catholic church was also touched upon, with the Nun’s simply to be hidden in the background not to be seen or heard yet doing everything for them. The final twist was very out there I have to say and was certainly not anything I would have ever guessed.

Ralph Fiennes is excellent in the leading role and fully deserves the Oscar nomination for leading actor. I enjoyed as usual Stanley Tucci’s performance, is there nothing that man cannot do? Isabella Rossellini picked up a nomination for an actress in a supporting role and that was very well deserved, with her outburst scene. That often happens for an actress in that category right? We then have strong supporting performances from John Lithgow, Lucian Msamati and Sergio Castellitto.