Strong central performances save a plot with some pretty contrived plot developments. Worth a watch but you have to suspend belief. So a lot like the Church.
this post was submitted on 12 Apr 2025
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I loved it!
I agree with others that the ending fails to live up to the rest of the film, but I still think it's worth watching because the other 90%+ is excellent political thriller type stuff.
Beautifully shot and some fine performances all round. Very much a character-based one though. Don't go into it looking for action or fast-moving plot.
Thanks !
It was a surprisingly good drama, but I felt the ending was a bit formulaic.
The Catholic/Papal setting is technically central to the film, and provides amazing visuals, but, like many good films, the movie is centred on interesting characters and their personal struggles. The movie could be rewritten to place it in any organisation and it would still be great. I say this not to downplay the religious angle, but to highlight that you don't have to be Catholic to enjoy it.
Having said that, the lead actors' performances are amazing and work wonderfully together.
End was odd. Such a good mystery and intrigue movie and the end just wasn't. I dislike "out of the blue" things you can't see coming.
See, if you do have a bit of knowledge on current catholic church politics and pick up of some clues early on in the movie you can definitely see the ending coming. It's not unguessable.
I agree that the end is not unguessable, but it's pure wish fulfillment, and it's not earned by the characters involved.
Yeah the ending is perfectly fine in theory, there just isn't enough dedicated to it throughout the rest of the film for it to work effectively. I haven't read the novel so I wonder if that did a better job in this regard.
Ah, yes that's true.
I agree, completely unearned. My headcanon has the movie end quite differently and more satisfactorily (but I won't give spoilers).
TL;DR: Very well made, but shallow and lacking in substance.
I had it on my watchlist but couldn't bring myself to watch it because the subject matter sounded dull but a good friend recommended I watch it so I pulled the trigger. No regrets. Way better than I was expecting.
Loved it so much I'm subscribed to the conclave hash tags on tumblr just to save more screen grabs
I really enjoyed it.
I only watch a handful of new movies a year. Usually prefer to go back and watch old movies Iβve never seen before. Yet I really enjoyed this one.