The ghosts of Agatha Christie and Alfred Hitchcock flit mischievously around this papal thriller, a film that’s set almost entirely in one location, and where everyone, for vastly different reasons, is guilty (of avarice, at the very least). Ralph Fiennes leads a cast of seasoned thesps playing anxious cardinals called up for Conclave after the sudden death of the Pope.
Fiennes is the bureaucratic Cardinal Lawrence, initially assigned a supervisory role as “dean” of the process, until a flamboyant dinnertime speech about tolerance nabs him a place among the papabili (potential popes).
Stanley Tucci is the moderate American Cardinal Bellini, who believes in gay rights and diversity and arouses the ire of the right-wing Italian vape-enthusiast Cardinal Tedesco (Sergio Castellitto). John Lithgow is the slippery