FILM
CONCLAVE
ABANDON POPE, ALL YE WHO ENTER HERE
Duty bound: Ralph Fiennes as Cardinal Lawrence. Below, Sister Agnes (Isabella Rossellini); Vatican intrigue.
★★★★
OUT 29 NOVEMBER / CERT 12A / 120 MINS
DIRECTOR
Edward Berger
CAST
Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, Sergio Castellitto, Isabella Rossellini
PLOT
Tasked with appointing the new Pope, dutiful Cardinal Lawrence (Fiennes) must wrestle with his convictions amid scandals and surprises.
EDWARD BERGER’S FOLLOW-UP to All Quiet On The Western Front is a slickly enjoyable papal popcorn piece about faith in institutions. Conclave may be set in the Vatican, but it’s practically modelled on American politics: one character even compares one of the movie’s many backroom meetings to aUS political convention. And yet, Berger’s rich detail is specific, nicely combining the worlds of political and religious power play.