The Order
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Movie Reviews of The Order
Movie Review: superpawn DVD's
Summary: 4 Stars
very good product. 13 items bought at the same time, combined shipping was not considered. shipping for 13 dvd's was $35.00 which is outrageous. there shipping cost was $8.00 ........ should improve the combined shipping policy........ would buy more items from you if shipping was not so un-reasonable.Movie Review: I LOVED this movie
Summary: 4 Stars
Everyone seems to not like this movie, but I LOVED IT!! I'm not one to follow the trend so don't think I'm just saying this because I have some sort of moive star crush on Heath Ledger. I loved the acting, as well as the plot! I recommend this movie to just about anyone, and can't wait for the DVD!Movie Review: A Dream of Demons
Summary: 3 Stars
This film has been thoroughly trashed by most of the critics. Yet the majority of the audience polls were shown to be positive. Brian Helgeland wrote it, produced it, and directed it. As a director, he has a short track record rife with innovation; as in his film A KNIGHT'S TALE. I feel that he is a promising artist who is still searching for his cinematic groove. His writing has been criticized as muddled and sophomoric. Yet this man wrote the screenplays for MYSTIC RIVER and L.A.CONFIDENTIAL. The fact that he had cast three of his principal actors, Heath Ledger, Shannyn Sossaman, & Mark Addy from A KNIGHT'S TALE has been panned. Yet this methodology of artistic trust was never questioned when it was practiced by John Ford, Clint Eastwood, or Akira Kurosawa. The cinematography by Nicola Pecorini is drenched in shadow and shafts of sunlight peeking through slits in crumbling mortar. It is a dark vision, but it never feels claustophobic. Pecorini, a camera operator for over twenty years, helped to pioneer the steadicam. This may be the first time he functioned as the head lenser. Oddly, I feel that I am standing almost alone on a hilltop, when I declare that I liked this movie.
Heath Ledger, as Alex Bernier, the young rogue priest, does a fine job of blending a tenacious faith with a rebellious spirit. He is treated by the Catholic Church as an eccentric pariah. After all he preached in Latin, and always had his back to the congregation; part of his consciousness securily rooted in medieval mysticism. His mentor, father/brother Dominic, played by Francesco Carnecutt, had died mysteriously in Rome, and the Church had labeled it a suicide. Ledger was recruited by powerful American Cardinal ( Peter Weller, as Driscoll, who specializes in off-beat roles ), to travel to Rome and to seek out the truth of Dominic's death.
Ledger gathers his team together. He is joined first by Shannyn Sossaman, as the gorgous tragic painter Mara Sinclair. Her role as Magdalene to his rogue rabbi is sometimes hard to comprehend. Perhaps part of the exposition had to be edited out. She loves a man who "can not love me back.". She apparently fell in love with him after she tried to kill him. Alex had performed an exorcism on her brother, and in a chaotic frenzy, she lost control and attacked him. This cost her a year's incarceration in a mental institution. She emerged clear-eyed, and ready to martyr herself for love. She seemed to be a bit psychic as well. She felt that something "terrible" was going to happen to Alex, and she wanted to be with him. It must have been interesting for this actress to construct a backstory for this character. In the film, she became available for Alex's seduction and carnal transcendence into actual manhood; and then she was sacrificed like a beautiful dove, forcing Alex to accept his fate.
Soon, Ledger is joined by his sole compeer, Mark Addy as father Thomas Garrett. They are the last remnants of their Caroligian Order. They have been trained as demon hunters and exorcists. We see a few lame encounters with demons. The effects are unspectacular, and the conflicts remain muddled and peripheral. Addy attacks his role with verve, energy, and Irish charm; but his character is never fully developed.
In the prologue we were introduced to Benno Furmann as the Sin Eater, the "Other". This plot twist is clever. The Sin Eater is a renegade entity that can offer, for a price, last moment absolution and forgiveness, a guaranteed path to paradise, outside of the Church's jurisdiction. The metaphysical task of devouring sins seems to create immortality. Benno, as William Eden, had existed for more than 500 years, and now it was time for him to pass on the mantle. Alex Bernier had been chosen as his successor from infancy. Every person, every circumstance in Alex's life was placed in his path by Eden. Benno's piercing calmness and intellect belie his dark powers. Was he good or evil, or trapped between them ? Is what he performed a service, a farce, or a sacrifice ?
There is a manic subplot regarding a murderous religious coven that operated in the catacombs. They murdered priests, and they infleunced papal politics. Our discovery that the natty Cardinal Driscoll, a candidate for Pope, was the grand wizer of this band of zealous thugs, was yet another loose thread in the fabric of the patchwork plot. But Weller, too, had to accept the responsibility of his actions. When he was betrayed, exiled, disgraced, excommunicated, and facing death, he summoned Bernier. Alex, who had accepted his role as the latest "Other", came to him. There was a Marat Sade suicide scene, and we witnessed the Sin Eater refusing to accommodate the Cardinal; thus damning him, and forcing him to embrace the demons waiting for him in the darkness.
I was left, in the final flickers of this film, angry at the behemoth bureacracy that appeared to be the Catholic Church ( a symbol of all the secret societies and mammoth corporations that wield the power of this world ), and a vague sensation that I had experienced a unique vision of man's journey.
Movie Review: A boring film that fails to capture our interest soon enough
Summary: 3 Stars
"The Order" is a rather boring movie that fails early one to get the audience involved in a convoluted religious story. I starting watching this 2003 film thinking it was some sort of attempt to do a film of a Dan Brown novel without using a Dan Brown novel (like "Jezebel" beating "Gone With the Wind" to the big screen) because all I knew was that it was about a priest, Alex Bernier (Heath Ledger) trying to solve a murder with all sorts of connections to the Catholic Church. Then I noticed Mark Addy was in the film playing Thomas Garrett, another member of Alex's order, the Carolingians (an order that supposedly makes the Jesuits look like drop outs), and remembered they were in "A Knight's Tale" together. Then I looked at the female lead in the film, Shannyn Sossamon as Mara Sinclair and thought that she looked a lot like the girl in "A Knight's Tale." Of course, she is, and the writer-director of "The Order" is Brian Helgeland, the writer-director of "A Knight's Tale." So now I am watching this film and wondering how these four people got together to make a film that could not have less in common with their previous collaboration.Maybe "The Order" would work better with a different cast because that fact keeps getting in the way. But by the time I had put those connections together I was already rather disinterested in the story. The head of the Carolingians is killed by a Sin Eater (Benno Fürmann), which has all sorts of religious and historical significance. Alex goes after the Sin Eater, intending to kill him, only to find the tables turned on him in a rather interesting way, but for a lot of viewers I bet it will be too late. In other words, if this movie was on television, a lot of viewers would have changed channels before it got to the part where the twist is revealed. But when you pay to watch something you tend to stick it out to the end (which explains why I watched it all and my wife went to bed).
The story of the Sin Eater's origin is probably the most interesting scene in the film, but when the best scene in the film is a flashback, that is not a good thing. If Brian Helgeland has ditched the Mara character, so that the audience was not expecting her and Alex to end up in bed together, despite the collar he is usually wearing, this film might have worked better. There is a tendency to want to compare this film with "The Exorcist," but actually it reminded me more of "The Last Temptation of Christ" (think about it, I am not off the wall here). I was almost going to add another star to this one until the Alex-Mara sub-plot picked up steam again and effectively derailed the last half of the film. Picking up the pacing for the first half hour would have helped as well.
There is a good idea here buried beneath all of the interpersonal angst of Alex's character, but in the end "The Order" simply does not work and the fault lies with Helgeland's writing half. Of course, given that he did the superb adaptations of "L.A. Confidential" and "Mystic River," this is rather surprising conclusion to reach. The DVD includes a series of deleted scenes that make it clear this movie could have moved even slower and been even less interesting, and in the end "The Order" is one of those films where the trailer is a lot more interesting than the actual film, which is one of the greatest sins in the cinema today.
Movie Review: Interesting Occult Thriller.
Summary: 3 Stars
This film was not promoted on a large scale. It did not even make it to the theatres for any length of time, despite Heath Ledger starring in the central role.
Occult/religious thrillers are not everyone's cup of tea. It can be said that some have a tendency towards the blasphemous, using bits of information, aspects of the bible, occult lore, half truths and fables etc, to then manipulate these stories to sell to modern audiences.
After watching this film, it dawned on me that The Order plays on the growing disaffection within the Catholic Church. The modern church has indeed undergone many changes over the years, particularly since Vatican II. Many anti-Catholic publications have flooded the market place, hinting or downright accusing the church of Satanism. There is no proof of this, but its great fodder for the disaffected.
Anyone not acquainted or trained in the tenets of the Catholic Church might have a difficult time understanding this film's basic premise. And that is, generally, any member of the church is entitled to what is called The Last Rights. On one's deathbed, the dieing will confess their sins to the acting priest, and thus cleansed of their transgressions, blessed and permitted into heaven. Those excommunicated from the Church forfeit these rights, thus absolution or forgiveness for their sins cannot be attained - therefore entry into God's presence is not permitted. The Sin Eater is Christian legend; a rebel angel or an appointed soul stands outside the dogma of the church, absolving those sinners, performing the Last Rights on the excommunicated, to ensure their entry into heaven. The film plays out this legend, however in a disturbing manner.
One must ask the question: Is the Sin Eater good or evil? In certain stories, the appointed one is a tool for goodness and not affiliated with evil at all. They're around to pick up the pieces, so to speak, ensuring those wrongly excommunicated are permitted into heaven. However, in this film, this fabled figure is depicted as demonic, a satanic representative, a tool of the devil. In other words, the film implies that those operating outside Church dogma are automatically on the side of evil.
Unfortunately, The Order had the potential to be an excellent film, a great film, but it settled on being a fair one.
Heath Ledger is a very good actor and this film gave him the opportunity to explore his talent. He has certainly matured over the years, and it's a shame that he doesn't take on more projects. The Order was a curious choice on his part and I wonder about his actual motives for taking on this project, as it did not reach a large, mainstream audience. As far as occult thrillers are concerned, Three and a half stars. Absolutely worth a look at.