Can we say a day late and a dollar short when it comes to this movie? If this movie came out, with the same surprise ending twist that it did here, maybe around two to three decades ago, maybe the effect on me may have been more profound? Although everyone I’d assume have their own prejudices and thinking when it comes not just to the matter of faith but to the social issues around us, Conclave in my opinion just didn’t do enough to spark that inner part of me to actually care? It’s an okay movie that gives audiences a glimpse of the election process the church goes through when a new pope is selected but, of course, with a lot more drama.

Boring? Sort of, but not in a way that made me want to speed up the movie to hurry it up. At right around two hours, it’s considered a pretty long movie considering how the main cast is sequestered in their setting. Anyway, I’ll just skip right to the end, as I don’t have too much to say with this one. The twist with Cardinal Benitez at the end, while it did successfully raise my eyebrows for a slight minute there, is where I felt this movie would have hit a lot harder had it been released decades ago. I’m okay with them promoting the woke stuff here, especially here, as the church is really a symbol of tradition and conservatism, to have the maximum impact on the audience members. I mean, I guess it’s supposed to be shocking?

What I find most interesting, however, is not with the issue of Cardinal Benitez himself in the movie, but rather on women and the nuns themselves. In the movie and I assume in reality as well, the nuns are supposed to quietly perform their duty while being “invisible”. Yet, we see in a couple of parts in which they played a bigger role than they were supposed to. Take Sister Agnes for example. She not only helped Dean Lawrence obtain the information that condemned cardinal Tremblay, but she also spoke up about it in front of every cardinal, which must have been a very scary situation for her. But notice that not only did she speak up, but that it was her words that actually sealed the coffin on Tremblay’s nomination. Whereas there was chaos when Lawrence brought it up, no cardinal present questioned Sister Agnes. To me, it’s a sign that the men trusted a nun, who are supposed to just serve and be invisible, more than their own brotherhood of brothers with whom they interact directly more with. In addition, the very ending scene of Dean Lawrence smiling while finally opening up the window in his room to sunshine and fresh air after being sequestered for so long while hearing three sisters passing by below laughing and having a good time signals to me that the nuns are needed much more than the priests and cardinals would ever know or care to admit. It would be a sad, sad world indeed without women. Well, at least that was my take on it.