MUMBAI: For lovers of good, ol' fashioned serious cinema that moves at a bristling pace and carries an undercurrent of dramatic tension from start to finish, it doesn't get better than Conclave. The film has deservedly bagged eight Oscar nominations, is deservedly the frontrunner to snag the Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Adapted Screenplay trophies come awards night, and deservedly demands every vestige of your attention on the big screen for its approximately 2-hour runtime, and then some.
Set around the demise of the incumbent pope, Conclave follows a papal congregation of global cardinals and their supporters of the Catholic Church, presided over by leading Cardinal Thomas Lawrence, as they're sequestered at the Vatican to commence the process of choosing the next pope. What follows is an unfolding of a web of secrets and lies that shock Lawrence and could shake the very foundations of the Church, wrapped in a tightknit screenplay by Peter Straughan and shephered by taut direction from Robert Harris that definitely shake our cinematic juices and keep us engrossed till the very last frame.
Without a shared of dount, the aforementioned script and narration are backed by an ensembe cast, who're absolutely, throught first rate, coupled with Nick Emerson's editing and a riveting background score by Volker Bertelmann, which only serve to elevate the drama and mystery. For added measure, the hautingly effective production design plays its part in the larger scheme of things almost as a 'don't worry, I'll fly under the radar while efficaciously doing my job'.
A word to the wise: Though the eponymous novel Conclave is based on claims to be a work of fiction, re-emphasized by a disclaimer at the beginning for an easily offended Indian audience, anyone who's followed the real goings-on of Catholicism and is rational enough to face facts, would well know that the fictitious setup is laid out against a backdrop of realising elemtns. So, do stay away from this if your faith gets offended all too soon and all too easily and needs to be be validated by total strangers.
For the rest, this is the kind of non-action, non-VFX, nob-bockbuster, prestigious filmmaking that serious cinephiles yearn for (as much as I adore the rest I just mentioned), and Conclave ticks all those boxes with resounding effect.
4.5/5 stars
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