A Vatican drama that showcases Ralph Fiennes and Stanley Tucci

Conclave piles on the Vatican intrigue as cardinals manoeuvre the politics of electing a new pontiff. It’s as tantalising as a murder mystery.

Ralph Fiennes as Cardinal Thomas Lawrence in Conclave.

“I’d be the Richard Nixon of popes.” That’s the confession of Cardinal Aldo Bellini (the ever reliable Stanley Tucci) when he’s sounded out about taking on the papacy in the Vatican drama Conclave. A pope who is no better than Tricky Dicky? As another cardinal admits, “We’ve had worse.”

This is characteristic of the droll humour that runs through what might otherwise be a dry account of the wriggling and wrangling that goes on behind closed doors to choose the earthly head of the Catholic Church.

The opening moments show the quiet death of the pope. By his beside are Bellini and Cardinal Thomas Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes), dean of the college of cardinals. It’s his job to run the papal conclave that will elect the new pontiff.

The winner needs two-thirds of the vote: 72 cardinals to write his name on their ballot slip. If that number is not achieved then the papal politics continues and the vote is repeated until it is.

The main contenders are Bellini, who says “no sane man would want the papacy”, Cardinal Joseph Tremblay (John Lithgow), Cardinal Goffredo Tedesco (Sergio Castellitto) and Cardinal Joshua Adeyemi (Lucian Msamati).

Lawrence also says he doesn’t want the job but one wonders if he is harbouring an unspoken ambition. He and Bellini are liberals.

When Bellini declares he wants to promote women in the church, he is met with silence. Later, the only significant female character, Sister Agnes (Isabella Rossellini), has her moment and it is powerful.

Tedesco is Italian and there has not been an Italian pope in four decades. He is from the far right and believes Christianity is at war with Islam and needs a leader who “will fight these animals”. Bellini warns: “If Tedesco becomes pope he will undo 60 years of progress.’’

Tremblay is a moderate yet there’s a rumour the pope sacked him but died before putting it into effect. Adeyemi is African and would be the first black pope. He believes homosexuals should be in jail while alive and in hell afterwards.

Then there’s a late arrival the others know little about. Cardinal Vincent Benitez (Carlos Diehz) has ministered in The Congo, Iraq and Afghanistan. He is plain spoken and at one point cuts the others to the quick, calling them “petty men” who put themselves ahead of the church.

The conclave is akin to a jury room. The cardinals are sequestered and forbidden to have any contact with the outside world. That doesn’t mean they don’t think about it, especially of how the media will react to the new pope.

Lawrence delivers a homily in which he says “Let us hope God grants us a pope who doubts, who sins and asks forgiveness”. Yet when he learns of one of the contender’s sins, involving sex, he thinks of the media, of public doubt, and does not forgive.

What unfolds as the cardinals go to war with each other, as Islamic terrorists commit acts of war, such as a car bombing, on Rome and elsewhere in Europe, is as tantalising as a murder mystery. The candidates become suspects, leaks happen, and questions arise about who is telling the truth. The one person who can’t be interrogated is the dead pope. Is there a chance he ­orchestrated everything?

This thriller feel is no surprise as the film is an adaptation of Robert Harris’s 2016 novel of the same name. It is directed by Edward Berger, who won a best foreign film Oscar for the 2022 German language war drama All Quiet on the Western Front, and written by Peter Straughan, who was Oscar-nominated for the 2011 John Le Carre adaptation Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.

The soundtrack, composed by Volker Bertelmann, who also won an Oscar for All Quiet on the Western Front, drives the tension throughout this high-stakes game of demigods. It’s a group of men in red robes and it’s edge-of-the-seat drama.

There is a huge, didn’t-see-that-coming twist at the end, one I suspect some viewers will find offensive. It is the same as in the novel, but times have changed since 2016.

The acting is strong throughout but it is Fiennes who carries the film. He is in almost every frame. I will be surprised if he is not in the running for best actor when the Oscar nominations are announced on January 17.

Conclave (PG)

120 minutes
In cinemas

★★★★