Watched the Movie Conclave Tonight

Since Melissa and I are Amazon Prime subscribers, we had the opportunity to watch the suddenly-timely movie Conclave on their channel.  I have to admit to being a bit resistant to sitting there through this fictional account of the selection of a new Bishop of Rome, i.e. the Pope, after the death of the incumbent pontiff.  But I thought, why not, especially after reading up on it that it received high critical reviews and starred one of my favorite current actors, Ralph Fiennes.  Fiennes plays Cardinal Lawrence, tasked as the manager of the Conclave.  The College of Cardinals, all with their red beanies, are shut off in a well-staffed and well-supplied building in the Vatican, and have to take repeated ballots to finally come up with their selection for the new leader of the Roman Catholic Church.  Since Pope Francis just passed away recently, this Conclave process is coming up soon, at the beginning of May.  The deliberations and negotiations behind doors will last as long as it takes until someone is finally elected.  As for the movie itself, I found sticking through it all rather tedious, with men representing different predictable factions vying for an edge against each other.  Scandal, tenuous alliances, megalomania and betrayal abound here...these "holy men" would fit in quite well with the Nazgul of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings for their coveting of power.  I'm not Catholic and I don't harbor any delusions that their situation is any worse than anyone else's...the urge to lord oneself over others is a human foible, largely male, as I have suffered from this desire on the part of would-be alpha-male "leaders" to make me subservient to them, going all the way back to childhood and continuing through school, work and even into old-age retirement.  I don't boss others around, nor do I want to: if you see yourself as my leader, then you ARE deluded and need to stay away.  Conclave's depiction of humans in conflict...albeit peaceful conflict...may enhance a story's dramatic appeal to many, but it left me flat and drained.  Who cares who they finally picked, and sadly, who cares in the real world how "our" Cardinals will  decide...