If I wanted to get away from the presidential election for an afternoon....this wasn't the place to go. The movie was Conclave....where Ralph Fiennes plays the Vatican's Dean of the College of Cardinals.....(Don't confuse that with our electoral college....although it would be easy to do.) The pope had just died and the Fiennes character was in charge of the sequestered senators....excuse me cardinals....until a successor president....excuse me pope would be voted in. If we ever wound up in an electoral tie....it would be the same type of conclave....and we tonight are in effect waiting for the same white smoke.
Many of the same issues were there as in our election....two factions....conservative and liberal....dirty tricks....terrorism....and scandals. In fact there was one scene where the Fienness character was frustrated and compared choosing a pope to an American election for president. This is a film where you do not want any hint of a spoiler. The movie was based on a 2016 novel....and I hope that you don't know anything that novel....because the ending is....well let me just say that it is a shocker.
Who would think that watching sequestered meetings of old men dressed in red would keep your attention....but this film does that and more. As my wife and I were walking out of the theater....she asked me what I thought. My response was that it just kept reminding me of biblical prophecy....not in specifics as much....but in that we had better remain vigilant....for there are surely some heart-stopping surprises ahead.
Title note: Revelation 13:3 ESV
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