When the actor, 62, thinks about slowing down his workload, he tells himself, "Just shut the f--- up, Ralph, get on with it."

Full of enough catty backstabbing to fulfill any reality TV viewer, Conclave might, on paper, sound like a dry, solemn film about men in red caps and grandiose Catholic rooms, but in practice it is gossipy,

Helmed by Edward Berger, the religious thriller drama ‘Conclave‘ stars Ralph Fiennes as Thomas Lawrence, a British Cardinal who is responsible for conducting the papal conclave following the pope’s death.

There is one sin which I have come to fear above all others: certainty.” That line, delivered by the always reliable Ralph Fiennes, is the core of director Edward Berger’s excellent new papal thriller,

Adapting Robert Harris’s bestseller, the movie finds a groove of high-end professionalism. The casting department is particularly overachieving. You realise that, somewhere in your mind’s eye, you have always imagined Stanley Tucci and John Lithgow as regal cardinals, more or less exactly as they both turn up among contenders for the throne.

Ralph Fiennes is Oscar-worthy astonishing - 5/5 Edward Berger’s account of cardinals battling to be the new Pope is a thrilling succession story, and Ralph Fiennes is simply hypnotic