Year: 2024 Rated PG Genre: Book-to-Movie, Politic, Religion Language: English Runtime: 2:00:00 Director: Edward Berger ☆ Main Cast: Ralph Fiennes ☆☆, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, Isabella Rosselini ☆☆, Carlos Diehz, Lucian Msamati, Sergio Castellitto
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Ah, my hope was so high for this film. I expected a literary and visual masterpiece. The film fell short of my high expectation. The film was advertised as a political thriller. I did not find the film thrilling. So there are these cardinals that want to be pope. Throughout the voting process, scandals were unearthed about the candidates. The scandals were weak sauce. I wanted these grown ass men to be meaner, nastier, for the sake of entertainment, of course. The film overdramatized what I thought were trivial wrongdoings, like an affair that resulted in the birth of a child and bribery. Sure, someone who bribes should not be pope. But com'n, bribery, that's so basic. That's like white collar crime 101. I want the hard-hitting crimes, again, for the sake of entertainment and the making of a political thriller that would actually thrill.
There is this really great, memorable score used in the film. It's used in the trailer too. That score really added suspense to the film. But the problem is the scenes that the score accompanies, the big reveal at the conclusion of that very dramatic score, each time, never live up to the drama that the score adds.
The film has some stunning visuals that made up for the lackluster script and the okay acting. Edward Berger has a great eye for what looks good on screen.
2024 was a weak year for film. I've watched six of the ten films nominated for Best Picture at the 2025 Oscars. Other than Conclave, the rest were meh. In alphabetical order, I've watched Anora, The Brutalist, Conclave, Dune: Part Two, Emilia Pérez and Wicked. I didn't understand the fuzz with Anora. My hope was high. It was below average. The Brutalist was brutally boring just like brutalist architecture. Dune: Part Two thought it ate. It did not. There were some amazing special effects. But overall, the film did not live up to what it could've been. Emilia Pérez was outright shit awful. Wicked. I liked the story, a lot. But I didn't like the acting and the execution. Conclave was the one standout of the bunch. With a nastier, tighter script, Conclave could've been a masterpiece. Of the four Best Picture nominated films I haven't seen, I'm most looking forward to watch The Substance. That's the one other film I think has the potential to make the list.
