Conclave review: Ralph Fiennes rules a superb Vatican thriller
A pope dies, the doors are locked and the cardinals start knifing each other politely. Edward Berger’s Conclave is the smartest grown-up thriller in years. Here’s where to watch it.
Reviewed, edited and approved by Editor-in-chief Daniel Sköld · Updated 25 October 2026
Contents
There was a time when Hollywood made films for people like us without anybody needing to be persuaded. Middle-aged men in nice suits talking in rooms, betraying each other, every decision a disaster waiting to happen. Somewhere along the way that turned into capes, multiverses and a sequel to a sequel of a toy.
Conclave is a film about elderly men in very expensive robes talking in rooms, and it is one of the most gripping things I have watched in ages. It’s a papal election thriller with the pacing of a heist film and the manners of a Trollope novel, and Ralph Fiennes is at the middle of it, looking like a man who hasn’t slept since the Reformation.
Premiere2024-10-25
GenreDrama, Thriller
CastRalph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, Isabella Rossellini
Directed byEdward Berger
Running time120 min
Rated12A
Watch onRent or buy
72%
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White smoke, black hearts
The set-up is simple. The Pope dies unexpectedly and Cardinal Lawrence, the Dean of the College of Cardinals, has the job of running the ancient and secretive ritual of choosing his successor. The Church’s most powerful men from around the world are locked inside the Vatican until they reach a decision, phones confiscated and the windows shut.
Lawrence wants it done properly: proper procedure, proper solemnity and as little drama as possible. He doesn’t get his wish. The candidates come with factions, past scandals and campaign managers who absolutely aren’t called campaign managers, and as the ballots go round, Lawrence finds himself in the middle of a conspiracy that could bring the whole institution down. That’s as much as you should know going in. This is a film that relies on its turns, and I’m not ruining a single one.
Put simply, it’s an election drama in which every voter is also a candidate and nobody will admit to wanting the job. Anyone who has sat through a works committee meeting or a golf club AGM will recognise the mood immediately, though the catering is better and the stakes are a billion souls rather than the biscuit budget.
The cast and the people behind it
Edward Berger directs, following up his Oscar-winning All Quiet on the Western Front, and the screenplay is by Peter Straughan, adapted from Robert Harris’s 2016 bestseller. If you’ve read Harris on Rome or Fatherland, you’ll know what you’re in for: meticulous research worn lightly, and a plot that runs like a Swiss watch.
Fiennes leads, and he’s backed by a conclave full of heavyweights: Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, Isabella Rossellini, Lucian Msamati, Sergio Castellitto, Brían F. O’Byrne and Carlos Diehz. It runs for 120 minutes, is rated 12A, and somehow doesn’t waste one of them.
It’s a quiet, inward performance from Fiennes. Lawrence is a decent man with doubts about his faith, buried under ceremonial duties and other people’s ambitions, and most of the acting happens in his face while everyone else is talking. After years of Voldemort and the swaggering concierge in The Grand Budapest Hotel, it’s a pleasure to watch him play a man who would very much like the whole thing to be over with.
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What works and what doesn’t
Nearly everything works. Berger, cinematographer Stéphane Fontaine and production designer Suzie Davies turn a story that’s essentially people talking into something properly cinematic. The Vatican becomes a maze of corridors, scarlet robes against cold stone and marble, and the shots are so composed that a queue to vote looks like a Renaissance painting. The sound design deserves a mention too. I’ve never been so unsettled by the clack of a door being locked.
It’s a film about faith that plays like a heist movie, and the thing being stolen is the soul of an institution.
The script is sharp and frequently funny, in that dry, sideways way that men who have spent their lives being careful with words tend to be. The scheming is delicious. You’ll catch yourself picking a favourite cardinal like a horse at Aintree, then feeling faintly guilty about it.
The reservations? Sometimes the film’s politics are drawn with a broad brush, with the factions sorted into easily recognisable camps, and some viewers will find the plot mechanics a bit too neat. You can see the paperback beneath the robes. Whether that bothers you probably depends on how much you enjoy a really good airport novel. I enjoy them a great deal, so it bothered me very little.
What the critics say
Critics have been largely enthusiastic. Deadline’s review called it a “barn-burning thriller” and put it among the best of the year, praising it as the kind of adult drama the studios used to churn out and now rarely make. At NPR, one reviewer described it as “a potboiler that starts bubbling in its opening moments”, while another passed on Variety critic Guy Lodge’s joke that it should have been called “Corpus Agatha Christi”. NPR also noted that this sums up both its paperback-thriller appeal and its dramatic limitations.
Not everyone has been charmed. Writing for the Catholic Diocese of Westminster, one reviewer admired Fiennes and the absorbing, fast-moving plot but argued that the film fails to really understand Catholicism, reducing its cardinals to a familiar conservative-versus-progressive caricature. He did concede that the politicking would “make Machiavelli blush”, which is the sort of complaint a marketing department would happily stick on a poster.
Fiennes came out of it with plenty of awards-season buzz, and the film arrived in the thick of Oscar season as exactly the kind of literate, adult prestige picture that awards voters love.
Where to watch Conclave in the UK
Conclave opened in UK cinemas in late October 2024. It’s now available to rent or buy on the major digital platforms, so you can watch it at home without signing up for yet another monthly subscription. It’s the kind of film that rewards your full attention, so put the phone in another room. The cardinals managed it, so you can too.
Verdict
Conclave is a beautifully made, deliciously sly thriller with Ralph Fiennes on career-best form and a supporting cast who clearly loved every whispered betrayal. If the plot sometimes shows its paperback roots, it’s no less entertaining for it. It’s essential viewing for anyone who liked Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Two Popes or a good Robert Harris on a long flight, and for anyone who misses the days when grown-up films were made for grown-ups. Four and a half stars from me, and a quiet prayer that Hollywood makes more of them.
Ashley Isaacs picks what's worth your evening – film, TV, streaming, music and books for men 45 and over with limited evenings and too many subscriptions. Reviews of what's new on Netflix, Prime Video, BBC iPlayer and the rest, crime dramas worth a weekend, and classics worth a second look. What's worth watching, what isn't, and where to find it in the UK.
One of Midcent's writers. Spotted something? Write to ashley@midcent.uk.
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