Has anyone seen the movie Conclave and would be happy to talk about the ending with me

[Philodendrine]

I looked for a thread but am not very good with the search function so if there's one already please let me know. I hope it's OK to ask this question here; I know there are some v knowledgeable posters and have followed various threads over the years and learned quite a bit.

I'm interested in whether the ending of Conclave (in particular, the new Pope's genetic make-up and appearance combination) is actually possible. My understanding from watching the film is that s/he was said to be chromosomally female (so I assume XX) but appearance had been unclear at birth, had been raised male and outward appearance is consistent with that (masculine features, low voice) but had found out in adulthood they had a uterus and ovaries.

My very limited understanding of DSDs is that if there is a voice that's broken / masculine body shape consistent with male puberty, then there must be testes of some kind (whether fully formed/descended or not) or otherwise there wouldn't be testosterone to effect those puberty type changes. So having a XX dsd and uterus/ovaries wouldn't work for that scenario I wouldn't have thought.

I read somewhere that the movie differed from the book in that the book said they had a vagina (not ovaries/uterus) - which I think could work, because an outwardly apparent 'vagina' but internal male organs and an XY DSD could still produce the outward male face/voice/body appearance. But to me the movie version doesn't seem to work. Can anyone with any better knowledge than mine tell me if I'm misunderstanding things?

Fair enough. Why didn’t they use a woman for the part?

Ah, I only read the book.

I didn’t think there was a trans agenda, more that the ideal pope should display true Christianity and be neither a man nor or a woman (or both). Fascinating to see the operation of the Conclave when as a Catholic it was always shrouded in mystery. Thought Ralph Fiennes was excellent as ever, the cinematography just beautiful. The scenes with the black and then white umbrellas!

Well the last time I saw an on screen scandal of this nature was on Footballer’s Wives…. not exactly a BAFTA winner!
I watched the film last night. I am a lapsed Catholic. Fell out with the Church in the 80’s over contraception after asking my RE teacher about it. Apparently, God would rather all of those children in Ethiopia die rather than there be a way of women having less of them, and thereby there being more resources per child.
There were so many upsides to the film - the cast are superb.
I loved all of the symbolism and the rituals.
Would have quite enjoyed a slug it out political boxing match, which is what the first hour and 30 minutes were.
But then it felt like a mash up of The Da Vinci Code and The Traitors - by then I was expecting Claudia to circle the Cardinals!
You could see the Kabul Cardinal was going to be a grenade in there - and actually spoke some sense in terms of moving forwards.
I have no idea but I thought he was going to be HIV positive.
In real life, it ain’t ever going to happen. It was an interesting twist, though.
Then I switched the news on and the real Pope is very poorly.
Isabella Rossellini was magical and her sections felt very Handmaid’s Tale. She had a point as well.
I think even us lapsed Catholics remain so. It’s a Church I have issues with still, but there is much of it still woven through me.
And finally, what a nice job it was for the fella playing the deceased Pope! No lines, a nice lie down but gets to work with some Hollywood stars. And possibly be part of an Oscar winner!

A good film with a stellar cast and a really stupid ending

A really heartfelt post by PeggyMitchellsCameo.

I enjoyed the film up until the final reveal. I thought that it stretched credibility to the point of jarring me out of the story.

The car bomb being allowed to get so close that it blew big chunks out of the top of the wall was also very unlikely. I assume that it was supposed to be symbolic of ‘God’s judgement’ on Fienne’s character’s ambition (for voting for himself), but the reality is that the Vatican City would be locked down way too tightly to get a bomb that big in.

Indeed. I go to the Vatican twice a year as I have family living nearby. The security is very tight and there are snipers on the roofs when the Pope appears at his window to address the worshippers.