Directed by Edward Berger and based on a novel by Robert Harris, Conclave is a movie about the Papal election. As the cardinals congregate at the Vatican to select a successor to the late Pope, a drama unfolds.

Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes), the Dean of the College of Cardinals and in charge of the election process, plays the central role. Although not a serious contender for Pope, his speech at the outset of the election is revealing. In that speech, he urges his peers to select someone who may be flawed but has the humility to ask for forgiveness and move on. According to him, absolute certainty is the enemy of faith – even Jesus Christ was uncertain till the very end of his life.

As the election process begins, a trail of deep secrets emerge. These revelations showing the Cardinals in poor light can shake the foundations of the Roman Catholic Church. Yet, despite the sensational nature of the revelations, Cardinal Lawrence deals with these crises in a mature and wise manner. Justice is done and God’s will prevails.

The Conclave boldly links the Roman Catholic Church with political divisions of the kind we read about in newspapers. Reacting to a suicide bombing, Cardinal Tedesco (Sergio Castellitto) lashes out at Islamic Fundamentalists without naming them. In a speech laced with hate and sarcasm, he calls upon Christianity to fight the real enemy, and ridicules the liberals for their pusillanimity. The Right-Left divide at the Catholic Church couldn’t be more stark.

While the movie shines a torch on the political divide within the Church, it could have gone a step further by fleshing it out. Unfortunately, it resorts to a linear narrative by showcasing the liberals as sophisticated and painting the conservatives as brutish. This one-sided representation ignores many nuanced complexities.

Given that every character in ‘Conclave’ is associated with the Church, the movie is understandably bereft of drama. Yet, stellar individual performances aided by a sharp script compensate for this gap, gripping you from the word go.