Thomas McLaughlin

I saw this movie today and laughed out loud in places. Adapted for an American audience, it is really a yarn based on the sort of horse-trading, influence-peddling- grifting and downright corruption that takes place in the US Congress. Legislators in boring attire are replaced by more colourfully arrayed cardinals in THEIR electoral college -the Conclave of the title. The division between liberal and conservative members of the conclave are way over the top. The doyen if the conservatives l, Cardinals Tedesco, has one particularly ludicrous outburst. It reminded me if the guy in face-paint and bison headgear who stormed the capitol at the end of the first Trump presidency. But it is pretty harmless stuff. There is some very fine acting from first rate performers making the most of a rubbish script Those film critics on fat salaries giving The Conclave five stars, rally re-examine the critical faculties!