James Barringer

I thought it was great, and was surprised by the strongly negative responses I've seen from the Catholic community. It was a work of fiction, not a portrayal of a real events - using the conclave as the set of what was a really good, surprising political thriller. I thought overall the members were portrayed in an admirable and realistic positive Christian way, and overall I felt MORE endeared to the Catholic Church after watching Conclave. I did think the big conservative Cardinal was, predictably the only character who was portrayed as a 2-dimensional cartoon villain - despite all the talk about not being tribalistic, it was clear in this movie, the liberals = angels, the conservatives = devils, and I think it could have been better with a more balanced and, frankly, honest and deeper portrayal. But Mr. Fiennes put in IMO an Oscar-worthy performance, and I'd say it's the best, most unique movie I've seen in a few years. The surprise ending was, considering our times, not a surprise and was too directly manipulative - maybe a bit "cringy" and in retrospect, predictable for our times, but still I really loved 98% of this movie. We could stand having more movies like this.