How realistic is ‘Conclave,’ the movie that lifts the lid on how a pope is elected?

This has been a blockbuster election year politically, so it’s fitting that a new movie shines a light on an ancient and highly secretive voting process: the selection of a new pope.

This has been a blockbuster election year politically, so it’s fitting that a new movie shines a light on an ancient and highly secretive voting process: the selection of a new pope. “Conclave,” directed by Edward Berger (“All Quiet on the Western Front”), and featuring a stellar cast of Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, Isabella Rossellini and John Lithgow, brings to life the heady mix of mystery, ritual, tradition but most of all the politics of the papal selection process. The highly anticipated movie, which already has an awards buzz around it, is based on the 2016 thriller by British novelist Robert Harris, which describes itself as a tale about the “power of God and the ambition of men,” and imagines what the next conclave could be like. Central to the storyline is the tension among the most senior figures in the Roman Catholic Church between the demands of their faith and the desire for high office. The film depicts the sotto-voce discussions in Vatican corridors and the subtle, behind-the-scenes politicking involved in a process where anyone seen to be campaigning for the position is likely to be ruled out. But “Conclave” is already facing criticism from some within the church. Bishop Robert Barron, the founder of the Word on Fire Catholic media ministry and one of the most followed Catholics in the world on social media, has told his followers on X to “run away from it as fast as you can.” He described it as ticking “practically every woke box” and sending a message that the only way forward for the church is to embrace “the progressive buzz words of diversity, inclusion, indifference to doctrine.”