There they are, moving in the halls and rooms of the Vatican, in director Edward Berger’s new film  “Conclave,” based on writer Robert Harris’s 2016 novel. First, let me say that Berger’s steady hand may win him an Oscar.

MOVIE INFO

“CONCLAVE”
Conspiracy Thriller, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
When Cardinal Lawrence is tasked with leading one of the world’s most secretive and ancient events, selecting a new Pope, he finds himself at the center of a conspiracy that could shake the very foundation of the Catholic Church.
Length: 120 minutes
Rating: Mild violence, gore, alcohol, drugs, smoking, frightening and intense scenes
Director: Edward Berger
Writers: Peter Straughan, Robert Harris
Stars: Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow

Here for us at this moment is a body of 113 brother cardinals we are told are from all over the globe. They have journeyed to Rome for this papal conclave (a quick definition is simply “an assembly of cardinals for the election of a pope” after a pope has deceased).

The holy men appear like bright red cardinal birds in their traditional red robes. They are locked together inside the Vatican, cloaked in secrecy, as they await their turn to cast their ballots. We’ve been here before, but this conclave deals with whispering about the pope’s situation as he’s laying near death.

This gathering has been put in the hands of one Cardinal Lawrence (yet another smooth job by a fine Ralph Fiennes), the Dean of the College of Cardinals, a quiet, serious figure whose job is to carry with him all the rules and secrets that float behind him down the halls and into the pope’s bedroom.

Lawrence, we learn, was a very close friend of the deceased pope, and the scene where he has to break the bedroom’s seal and look for hidden documents is hard to watch.

There are secrets here in these halls that float around among the cardinals.

Berger’s tale moves slowly at first giving us time to meet the flock.

There’s Cardinal Bellini (the very Italian Stanley Tucci), and Cardinal O’Malley (Brian F. O’Byrne), who knows a secret that should have gone into eternal silence with the pope. Did I mention the unexpected arrival of Cardinal Benitez, who was recently secretly named Archbishop of Kabul? I did not, but keep an eye on him.

What Lawrence finds as he violates the Church’s most sacred rules may give good Catholics pause, but a secret that senior nun Sister Agnes (a very different and wonderful Isabella Rossellini) shares with Lawrence changes everything. It’s here that a computer revelation becomes a papal sword.

A newly enlightened and saddened Lawrence questions the top three cardinals who crave, for their various reasons, to wear the ultimate white robes of the man who guides the Catholics of the world.

One of the climactic scenes goes to the wonderful John Lithgow as Cardinal Tremblay, whose slightly craven drive for the famous balcony is revealed and weakens him.

Cinematographer Stephane Fontaine’s camera will win him one of the awards this spring, mostly for his shots of the shadows in the silent halls in which Lawrence journeys to the truth.

The interior sequences involving the Sistine Chapel and Casa Santa Marta were all shot at the Cinecittà Studios in Rome.

“Conclave” is streaming on Peacock and can be purchased on Amazon Prime Video or Apple TV.