Conclave (2024)

Conclave has no car chases, no explosions, no weapons of any kind. It's a film about old men in red robes arguing in beautiful rooms. It's one of the most tense films of the year.

Ralph Fiennes plays Cardinal Lawrence, the Dean tasked with organizing the papal conclave after the Pope's sudden death. He's supposed to be neutral. He's supposed to facilitate. Instead, he's drawn into a web of secrets, alliances, and revelations that threaten to tear the Church apart.

The Performances

Fiennes is magnificent. He plays Lawrence as a man of genuine faith who is horrified to discover what the institution he serves has become. There's a quiet devastation in his performance that builds and builds until the final act.

Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, and Sergio Castellitto are all outstanding as the leading candidates. Each represents a different vision for the Church -- progressive, conservative, radical. The political maneuvering between them is written and performed with the precision of a Cold War spy thriller.

Isabella Rossellini appears briefly as a nun who knows more than she should. She does more with ten minutes of screen time than most actors do with an entire film.

The Direction

Edward Berger (who directed All Quiet on the Western Front) shoots the Vatican with the same eye he brought to the trenches. The Sistine Chapel becomes a battlefield. The dining hall becomes a war room. Volker Bertelmann's score pulses underneath every scene like a heartbeat.

The film makes you care about procedural details you'd never think about. How the votes are counted. How the smoke signals work. Who sits where at dinner. It's all political, and it's all riveting.

The Verdict

Conclave is a reminder that great drama doesn't need spectacle. It needs characters with competing convictions, dialogue that cuts like a blade, and a story that keeps you guessing until the very last frame.

The ending will divide audiences. I think it's perfect.