Conclave

Far less silly than Angels & Demons (at least until its final ten minutes), and with less conspiracy and murder, Conclave tackles the election of a new pope by the sequestered College of Cardinals. Our main protagonist throughout events is Cardinal-Dean Thomas Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) who despite his recent religious struggles finds himself in charge of the proceedings where he sides with the more modern liberal candidates (Stanley Tucci and Lucian Msamati) for the open position over other candidates (John Lithgow and Sergio Castellitto).

Over the course of sequester, we get a bit of detective work by Lawrence looking into events surrounding a few of the favorites which causes the vote to sway in unexpected ways throwing both himself and the newest cardinal of the order (Carlos Diehz) into the running. Director Edward Berger and screenwriter Peter Straughan's version of Robert Harris's novel which is largely concerned with petty jealousies and aspirations of those assembled, is punctuated with terrific performances across the board both in front of and behind the camera and a mystery that has enough layers to keep our interest despite the limitations of both story and setting. 

If there are issues to be found with Conclave they come from the source material. Many of the various twists to the story work to varying degrees, steering the election in different directions. The last of these, which include what could be described as a far-too-timely act of God, literally bursting into the secluded group, and a final secret to be discovered, feel like twists for twists' sake to allow for a "shocking" ending. This is where Conclave has the most in common with Dan Brown's work. I don't know that these last few choices ultimately hurt film all that much, other than making the end feel quite abrupt and steering the drama and mystery into melodrama in the final few moments, but they are also largely unnecessary for the exploration of Lawrence, his faith, and his duty to to right by the church and the former pope which is the central thread of the film.

• Title: Conclave
• IMDb: link