The cardinals have gathered in the conclave in Rome to elect a new Pope. Everyone is afraid to get the job. Cardinal Melville is elected. As the faithful gathered outside waiting for the announcement, Melville breaks down on the way to the balcony. The cardinals can't leave until the announcement and the public cannot be informed without Melville. They reluctantly bring in psychoanalyst Professor Brezzi to treat the new Pope. Brezzi is surprised that he is also forced to stay inside isolated from the world and his family. Brezzli's wife is also a psychoanalyst and Melville is secreted to be treated by her. He manages to escape from his escorts and roam the streets of Rome.I don't think more sophisticated comedies translate well between different languages and cultures. There is an interior ingrainness of the religious world that I'm lacking. There is a bit of drama as Melville's interior conflict goes on. It would have been interesting to have an outsider or a media person investigating the situation and happens upon the cardinal on the loose. I can see the attempt at humor but it doesn't strike me as funny.

I caught half of this movie and decided to search and record it. Then I saw it with friends who could not stop laughing throughout the movie. The acting was superb, the story line - not a dull moment! We had a feeling as if someone had a premonition of what is to come in 2013. Some scenes in the movie are quite memorable - when each of the Cardinals utters a personal prayer "Not me!" The volleyball game which shows the cardinals as regular human beings...The scene in the theater when the "Pope" recites the part being played on stage, and then when the cast are in the restaurant and he feels totally detached. A lot of touching moments in this film. It is interesting and enjoyable whether you are a Catholic or not!

IMHO, the paradox and the highlight of the movie is that the main character - the newly elected Pope, saying "no" under such public pressure, found extraordinary inner strength and honesty, which outwardly had been manifesting as "tiredness and weakness".In my opinion, this movie is equally true to (any) all official Church denominations (not only the Catholic Church). here i want to make an important reservation: i don't mean to hurt anybody's feelings. i am in great awe and reverence to any monotheism and/or spiritual feats of all the saints of all religions. However, to my mind, this film is mostly intended for the people, who, for various reasons, have lost their personal (direct) aspiration to God and rely more on their priests and/or the rightness of their Church's teachings. Most likely they will find it hard to accept this movie, because it is difficult to see and accept that their (respective) Main Church Leader is just an ordinary man, who doubts and seeks God, as well as any other mortal being does and that any official Church denomination is mostly a "Big Theater" with its backstage, where quite earthly problems are being resolved. that is why it may come as a big dis-llusioning experience. but as the spells are disappearing, i believe, this movie is a great gift to all of us, no matter what faith denomination we are considered to be.

***this review may contain spoilers*** The other reviewers, in my opinion, focus too much on the minutiae of this story. I must admit my first reaction to the film is that it lacked coherence and punch. However, in the middle of the night, awakening with my own "road to Damascus" (as one reviewer said)regarding this film, I realized that the story elements served to make the statement that the authority and credibility of the Catholic Church in the 21st century is about to undergo a complete transformation, if not collapse. With all the sexual abuse scandals worldwide, the lack of appropriate consequences for the bishops and cardinals who protected those offending priests (see Cardinal Bernard Law, who was given an important position in Rome, after leaving Boston in disgrace), and the appalling treatment of and attitudes towards women all point to an institution that can only survive as long as a belief in the concept that the pope is "god's representative on earth" prevails. Within the context of this film we see that the newly elected pope is just a human being like any of us, and maybe only men, not god, have chosen him to lead. When the infallibility of the pope is called into question, then the whole thing begins to unravel. This belief in the pope's infallibility is what the authority of the Catholic Church rests upon. If he's just another guy, does he have the moral authority to make pronouncements about gay marriage, women as priests, celibacy of priests, birth control, and so many other controversial issues. At the end of the film, when Melville finally leaves, the cardinals are completely aghast, showing absolute shock in their reactions, covering their mouths in horror, realizing that their world is about to drastically change. It is no longer "business as usual." I think Moretti knew that this is exactly the message he was unleashing with this film. And to him, I say Bravo!! By the way, I was raised Catholic, have a sister who is a nun, and I attended a Jesuit university, until I was told upon entering a pre-law class on the first day of school that "all you women -- you go to the back of the room. You get a C for the term." There are many, many good people who follow the Catholic faith. But I am referring to the male hierarchy which, since the beginnings of the church, have used all kinds of means to grasp and stay in power. This film takes a little of that power away from them.