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Conclave is the process is voting for a new Head of the Catholic Church, since the Pope is dead, and a new one must be elected. Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes – The Menu) is tasked with running this show.
Someone has to be it, with the runners and riders including Cardinals Adeyemi (Lucian Msamati – See How They Run), Tremblay (John Lithgow – Sharper) and Bellini (Stanley Tucci, as Stanley Tucci, as usual).
Trouble is, when it comes to voting for the next one, one is a Cardinal whom nobody likes, one has sired a love-child, one has too much of a fondness for something they shouldn’t, one has questionable heritage for the position, and one simply doesn’t want to be Pope!
In fact, it comes out that the late Pope’s final act was to sack one of his Cardinals who’s up for the job, but what did he do? Of course, it helps your case if you keep such an action to yourself as long as possible…
Everyone who’s anyone is brought to the Vatican to cast their vote, but with no-one winning a two-thirds majority with the first vote, they must continue to do this over a series of days until a successor is chosen. However, with secrets and scandals uncovered as time goes on, the odds of any particular candidate winning can change wildly from one vote to the next.
Sadly, while Conclave looks intensely brilliant from the trailer, in practice… Good Lord, it’s so slow and gets tedious!
It’s also very darkly shot, also making it difficult to sustain interest when that is slowly eroding from the start, making me realise that thise whole story could’ve been told within an hour, as opposed to slugging it out into two.
However, it’s interesting to note that those who worked with the late Pope faked him having several days’ worth of diary events on to his final day, to make it look like he was fully committed to the job, making me wonder… did they do that with the Queen? Two days before she died, she had to suffer the first weekly meeting with then-brief, and new, Prime Minister, Liz Truss. Is that what finished her off?
As an aside, obviously, there’s very few people in the cast who are actually Italian, but despite script’s shortcomings, the casting is more focused on getting some decent actors – and having them speak in their native accent, rather than only getting Italian actors, or forcing everyone to put on a fake accent.
NOTE: There are NO mid- or post-credit scenes.
Conclave is in cinemas now, and is available to pre-order on Blu-ray and DVD, ahead of its release date TBA.
You can also buy the novel in Paperback and Kindle form.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 120 minutes
Release date: November 29th 2024
Studio: Sony Pictures
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 (Redcode RAW (8K))
Cinema: Odeon Trafford Centre
Rating: 3/10
Director: Edward Berger
Producers: Alice Dawson, Robert Harris, Juliette Howell, Michael A Jackman, Tessa Ross
Screenplay: Peter Straughan
Novel: Robert Harris
Music: Volker Bertelmann
Cast:
Lawrence: Ralph Fiennes
Adeyemi: Lucian Msamati
Bellini: Stanley Tucci
Tremblay: John Lithgow
Wozniak: Jacek Koman
Benitez: Carlos Diehz
Dead Pope: Bruno Novelli
Mandorff: Thomas Loibl
O’Malley: BrÃan F O’Byrne
Sister Agnes: Isabella Rossellini
Mendoza: Rony Kramer
Tedesco: Sergio Castellitto
Father Haas: Valerio Da Silva
Nakitanda: Joseph Mydell
Guttoso: Vincenzo Failla
Krasinski: Garrick Hagon
Sabbadin: Merab Ninidze
Landolfi: Madhav Sharma
Villanueva: Loris Loddi
Lombardi: Roberto Citran
Jr. Cardinal-Deacon Guerrini: Antonio Toma
Sister Shanumi: Balkissa Maiga
Brotzkus: Romuald Klos
Lowenstein: Willie Jonah
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.