Conclave
Focus Features | Release Date: October 25, 2024 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
79
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 54 Critic Reviews
Positive:
49
Mixed:
5
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeDec 2, 2024
The fierce intelligence of Fiennes’s work is magnified by Berger’s elegant direction. Read full review
100
USA TodayBrian TruittOct 29, 2024
The thriller is both a thought-provoking investigation into real-life themes and human flaws but also an undoubtedly entertaining exercise, one where the simple act of dropping off ballots becomes a crucial aspect of a scintillating, white-knuckle affair. Read full review
100
RogerEbert.comNell MinowOct 24, 2024
Conclave is smart, provocative, sometimes funny, and determined to make us rethink our initial impressions. It challenges us to challenge ourselves and is wildly entertaining, one of the year’s standout films. Read full review
100
The A.V. ClubTomris LafflySep 1, 2024
A gradually swelling, deeply intellectual, and unexpectedly fun political thriller, Berger’s twisty film takes the audience behind the notoriously secretive closed doors of the Catholic Church for one of its most private processes: the election of a new pontiff. Read full review
91
ConsequenceLiz Shannon MillerOct 25, 2024
Watching brilliant actors face off over issues of idealism, pragmatism, and maybe occasionally faith makes for captivating viewing. Conclave even dares to make it a little fun. Which might be its most subversive element. Read full review
91
Original-CinJim SlotekOct 21, 2024
In real life, what happens in the Vatican generally stays in the Vatican. But as cinematic guesswork goes, Conclave is as good as it gets. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyMaureen Lee LenkerSep 4, 2024
Conclave is packed with unexpected twists and its final reveal is one viewers will never see coming, an increasingly rare occurrence in modern movie-making and the mark of an impeccably crafted thriller. Read full review
90
We Got This CoveredCharlotte SimmonsOct 28, 2024
A pointed puzzle-box that never takes its finger off its stormy emotions, 'Conclave' is as softly sensational as it is sweepingly satisfying. Read full review
90
ABC NewsPeter TraversOct 25, 2024
Ralph Fiennes delivers a master class in acting in this juicy, jolting mystery thriller in which director Edward Berger uses the fictional election of a new pope in Rome to mirror America’s own dirty politics. What fun! And the drama of It will pin you to your seat Read full review
90
Film ThreatAndy HowellSep 26, 2024
It feels like a timeless classic. It takes us into the forbidden spaces we can’t otherwise know, not just cloistered rooms but deep into the human soul. Read full review
90
Screen RantGraeme GuttmannSep 11, 2024
Conclave is not trying to be some treatise on the state of the Catholic Church, nor is it saying anything new about modern religion. It's engrossing nonetheless, and it milks the titular event for every dramatic drop its worth. Read full review
90
ColliderJason GorberSep 10, 2024
Berger’s latest is a blast of brilliance, with a supremely compelling story driven by some astonishing performances. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterStephen FarberAug 31, 2024
Berger does a fine job controlling all of these performances, and he also creates a rich atmosphere for the production. Read full review
90
VarietyPeter DebrugeAug 31, 2024
Conclave is one of those rare films that respects the audience’s attention, even as it sneaks a few tricks behind their backs. Read full review
88
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenNov 1, 2024
This is a movie that has the courage of its own convictions, but also the playfulness to wear them lightly on its ridiculously embroidered sleeves. Read full review
88
Movie NationRoger MooreOct 28, 2024
Conclave is a deliciously immersive experience, a narrative that commands our attention and expects our speculation even if it maintains a distance that allows it all to seem out-of-step, fusty and even darkly humorous at its most extreme. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsOct 24, 2024
Sleek, confident and peppered with delicious portraits in pursuit, deceit and evasion, the carnival of papal intrigue known as “Conclave” works like gangbusters. Read full review
88
The Associated PressLindsey BahrOct 23, 2024
Conclave is sure to ruffle some Catholic feathers — provocation is in its DNA. But for the rest of us, this juicy, smartly crafted thriller, is simply a great watch. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeOdie HendersonOct 22, 2024
Conclave is a massively entertaining slice of melodramatic excess, with actors who know they’re in a soap opera disguised as high drama. As a result, everyone plays their roles completely straight — and to great effect. Read full review
88
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiSep 10, 2024
While I needle “Conclave” for being far from realistic, its meticulous detail is evidenced immediately by the ceremonial removal of the papal ring from the corpse and the sealing of his apartment. Visually, the entire film’s a stunner. Read full review
83
The PlaylistGregory EllwoodAug 31, 2024
Like any good page-turner, Conclave is full of twists. Some you’ll see coming, and others will genuinely shock you. But this is smart, fiery melodrama. Read full review
82
The AtlanticShirley LiNov 8, 2024
Conclave also adds a few too many contrived twists in its quest for narrative drama, but the movie moves nimbly enough to avoid a collapse into pure fantasy. Read full review
80
iChristina NewlandJan 3, 2025
You don’t have to profess any special interest in the subject to have a fantastic time at the cinema with Conclave, which is part political thriller, part catfight, and utterly compelling. Read full review
80
NMEJames MottramDec 6, 2024
What results is a film that both works as a finely-tuned thriller and a meditation on the Church’s place in today’s society. Read full review
80
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeDec 2, 2024
Does it all add up? The cleaved-brow Fiennes, who does inner torture better than anyone, makes something believable of Lawrence’s battle for truth and integrity. Isabella Rossellini works magic with a minute supporting role. But few will survive the final scenes without pondering the Italian for “magnificent hokum”. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawNov 28, 2024
Berger orchestrates marvellously tense, explosively dramatic scenes and with cinematographer Stéphane Fontaine and production designer Suzie Davies contrives some spectacularly strange and dream-like tableaux. Read full review
80
Time OutPhil de SemlyenNov 22, 2024
Directed with real élan by Edward Berger – going two-for-two on literary adaptions after his take on All Quiet on the Western Front – Conclave is a film for the ’they don’t make ’em like they used to’ brigade. Read full review
80
EmpireSiddhant Adlakha Nov 22, 2024
A papal thriller that treads on eggshells, Conclave is one of the year’s most deftly balanced films. Pulpy and pensive in equal measure. Read full review
80
TimeStephanie ZacharekOct 28, 2024
In Berger’s hands, it all works a treat, right up to the movie’s shockeroo surprise ending. Berger’s 2022 All Quiet on the Western Front won the Best International Feature Oscar, and he guides this film, too, with a sure and steady hand. Read full review
80
Rolling StoneDavid FearOct 25, 2024
Do not come to Conclave in search of some divine messages about power, corruption and lies percolating within a sacred space. Just embrace it for being the type of gobsmacking, pope-up-the-jams entertainment that will have you genuflecting with gratitude over its over-the-top ridiculousness. Read full review
80
The New York TimesManohla DargisOct 24, 2024
With pomp and circumstance, miles of scarlet cloth and first-rate scene-stealers, the movie snakes through the marbled corridors of Vatican City, pauses in bedchambers as cold as mausoleums and tunnels into the deepest secrets of the human heart. It’s quite the journey, and as unpersuasive as it is entertaining. Read full review
80
Screen DailyTim GriersonOct 23, 2024
Conclave is most effective when it’s as shamelessly entertaining as its ambitious characters. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriSep 12, 2024
Berger’s film is adapted, quite faithfully, from Robert Harris’s 2016 novel, and it combines the pulp velocity of a great airport read with the gravitas of high drama. Read full review
80
The GuardianBenjamin LeeSep 10, 2024
The nature of the twist, together with the high volume score, some crowd-pleasing gotchas and some sinister vaping remind us that Conclave is a glossily transferred airport novel first and a deeper drama about the world of religion second. Read full review
80
Vanity FairRichard LawsonSep 10, 2024
Conclave whips itself up into high melodrama and then cuts through all the sturm und drang with sudden darts of humor. It’s a carefully calibrated thing, touching fingers with prestige greatness while keeping its feet firmly planted in the realm of rollicking entertainment. Read full review
79
TheWrapWilliam BibbianiOct 22, 2024
Whenever the filmmaker’s emphasis is on the sinful humanity of these men of God, reducing them to Machiavellian backstabbers, it’s a satisfying and absorbing yarn. When it tries to say something profound — while refusing to acknowledge the many elephants who populate the Vatican’s many rooms — it makes cardinal errors. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliOct 28, 2024
The movie is at its best when it feels like a Vatican riff on 12 Angry Men, a concept that is enough to keep things flowing smoothly until the frustratingly “Hollywood” events of the final 20 minutes. Read full review
75
Washington PostTy BurrOct 24, 2024
It’s the kind of movie that some will deem important enough to merit end-of-year awards and others will find portentous enough to give them the giggles — again, not unpleasurably. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleOct 24, 2024
Conclave is a fascinating drama about the personal and political machinations involved in the selection of a new pope. If a bunch of cardinals filling out multiple ballots over the course of several days doesn’t exactly sound riveting to you, prepare for a surprise. Read full review
75
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldOct 24, 2024
Its settings and cinematography are beautiful, filled with marble hallways and vivid red carpets that seem to be punctuating the scenery with a slash. . . And its performances are a pleasure, everywhere you look. Read full review
75
ObserverOliver JonesOct 23, 2024
While Berger’s film should be applauded for envisioning a way forward for the profoundly troubled and still deeply corrupt organization, by not more completely and honestly reckoning with the crimes of its past, its optimism for the future—while both deeply felt and dramatically conveyed—ultimately rings hollow. Read full review
75
SlashfilmWitney SeiboldOct 23, 2024
Although it doesn't possess the hard-boiled, shifty-eyed salaciousness of a traditional whodunnit, "Conclave" is certainly in the spirit of a private investigator story. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKatie WalshOct 24, 2024
The richness of the filmmaking, including the powerful acting, obfuscates the fact that the story itself is a pretty thin and silly mystery with twists that cheapen the intellectual quandary at the center of the tale. Read full review
67
Paste MagazineRory DohertyOct 24, 2024
The traditional, closed-door design of the election invites an inherent layer of mystery and conspiracy, and the staggered voting process – the tallies of each vote are announced in front of the cardinals, giving them a brief recess to reconsider who is worth throwing their weight behind before having another go – provides an attractive structure for drama. Read full review
67
The Film StageCaleb HammondSep 10, 2024
More airport paperback than theological treatise, Conclave is undeniably silly throughout, but its last-second reveals choreograph the sensibility too openly, undercutting much of what was masterfully unfurled up until that point. Read full review
67
IndieWireDavid EhrlichAug 31, 2024
Conclave is far too entertaining to dismiss in a puff of white smoke, even if the film might be a bit too convinced of its own dramatic import. Read full review
65
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzOct 23, 2024
Berger’s film is a sometimes zippy, frequently ridiculous drama. Read full review
65
The Daily BeastNick SchagerSep 10, 2024
Fine performances abound, including from Stanley Tucci and John Lithgow, but the film is ultimately at odds with itself, its handsome appearance and severe attitude clashing with its pulpy impulses. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperOct 23, 2024
There is much to admire about “Conclave,” but in the end, all of its lofty aspirations come tumbling down due to that poorly constructed Jenga tower of a plot. Read full review
60
The IndependentClarisse LoughreyDec 6, 2024
Conclave turns ritual into the hysteria of a murder mystery, the tension of a political conspiracy, the pressurised force of a criminal heist. Read full review
60
Little White LiesDavid JenkinsNov 28, 2024
It’s all competently performed and executed, with loud booms of sound cued to each scene change as an attempt to ramp up the tension, and lots of behind-the-head tracking shots of cardinals anxiously pacing through corridors and stairways. Read full review
60
The New YorkerRichard BrodyOct 28, 2024
Fiennes and Tucci, in particular, spin dialogue with athletic deftness, but they and the rest of the cast are burdened with embodying stock characters who exist only through a salient trait or two. Instead of rising to the awe-inspiring heights of their settings, the refinement of the performances is narrowed to monotony. Read full review
60
The TelegraphTim RobeyOct 10, 2024
Conclave is briskly enjoyable, but once you’ve wafted the white smoke away, it leaves you with frustratingly little to chew on. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalKyle SmithOct 25, 2024
None of it rings true; those who seek a serious dramatic inquiry into the inner workings of the church should look elsewhere. Read full review
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