This film and Dune: Part 2 were the only Oscar-nominated films for Best Picture that I watched all the way through. I never felt either was Best Picture material, though both were fine films. It goes without saying that the subject matter is very timely.

The cast was excellent (excellent excellencies?). I would watch almost anything where Ralph Fiennes plays a lead role. I might remind readers that a Dan Brown novel had the Vatican as it’s setting where Evan McGregor played the camerlingo (which Fiennes plays in Conclave). It’s called Angels & Demons.

I was impressed (as with Angels & Demons) at the “behind the scenes” peek into the Catholic Church with regard to the factions that arise between cardinals–and which are structures of power and ideology not unlike political parties or alignments.  There was a bit of a plot twist in Conclave that goes even further into the parallels to the present where Francis’ papacy might be reflected.

WRH