Ralph Fiennes lends gravitas to the new Robert Harris adaptation: an operatic, thoughtful thriller on the race for the papacy.

Cardinal Thomas Lawrence wishes to leave the murky machinations of the Vatican, but is asked by the Pope to stay on, just before his death puts Lawrence in charge of choosing a replacement. Among candidates greatly differing in ideology and character, he must guide the electorate to a peaceful solution – but few will budge easily and every one has secrets.

Director Edward Berger (All Quiet on the Western Front) and writer Peter Straughan (Wolf Hall) adapt a standout entry in Harris’s halls-of-power political dramas, matching its gripping, intricate melodrama with cinematic flair and detail. Among spectacular supporting turns from Stanley Tucci, Isabella Rossellini and John Lithgow, Fiennes provides a welcome centre of nuance, thoughtfulness, and much-tried faith.