Edward Berger directs Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci and Sergio Castellitto in this mystery thriller where an unambitious cardinal must navigate the back stabbings and conspiracies as he organises the election of the next pope.

The Vatican goes 10 Little Indians… only instead of murders reputations are obliterated and we aren’t looking for a killer but the next Pope. There is something very tickling about a mere airport novel given the full prestige treatment… but then again what was The Godfather but exactly that. Berger conjures up some striking imagery – every frame is a painting. He amps the reds while somehow making everything else desaturated. When it comes to lending rituals ominous significance he has the eye. The actual drama is a little stilted. There is as much camp as there is insight, Fiennes feels swaddled in a role that demands he is tightly coiled throughout. You kinda want that one scene where he lets rip yet it never arrives. That perhaps sums up Conclave to the penny. It always teeters on the edge of being something a bit more exciting. The final act goes off the rails with false spectacle and hollow twists to get us to that shock new pope. I’m not going to lie, I hoped for a modern classic here. It could still easily win Best Picture in the spring and in all honesty I can see me banging it on as an indulgence every other Easter weekend. Sergio Castellitto power playing a cad of cardinal has vaped his way into icon status after just one viewing. Puff that vape, you handsome old fascist.

7

Perfect Double Bill: Doubt (2008)