The Order
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Movie Reviews of The Order
Movie Review: Religious Thriller?
Summary: 3 Stars
I enjoy intelligent thrillers, even those that move forward slowly and carefully. For example, I thought "The Game" with Michael Douglas was one of the best of this type of movie. I thought this movie had the potential of being in the same class as "The Game," but I was disappointed.
Part of the problem is the story itself. Alex Bernier (Heath Ledger) is a young priest investigating the apparent suicide of his mentor. It is important to the story to realize that all the principal characters are Catholic. While suicide is a sin in all religions, in the Catholic faith it is perhaps the worst sin of all because it can never be forgiven and prevents that person from being buried in hallowed ground. Alex struggles to believe that his mentor could have committed suicide and sets out to understand why or to prove that he did not commit suicide.
The movie plods along, paced by Alex's thoughts and his interaction with William Eden (Benno Fürmann) and Mara Sinclair (Shannyn Sossamon), along with several other characters, including Peter Weller in one his most unusual roles. The problem with the pacing is that the core issues in this movie are the shock of "sin eating," a pagan practice that dates back hundreds of years, and corruption with the church. Perhaps Catholics might be shocked that sin eating might still exist, but Protestants are going to yawn and say "so what?" Further, with the significant on-going publicity regarding a variety of crimes committed by various priests and the ensuing cover up by the Catholic Church, political corruption within the Church and the possibility that some of the most important members of the church might be other than they seem just isn't all that shocking. This movie should have been made twenty years ago when it might have had more of an effect.
The actors here are not at fault. The acting throughout is quite good. I was very impressed by all the principal characters, especially by Heath Ledger, who did an excellent job. Shannyn Sossaman as his conflicted love interest was dark, brooding, very sensual and sexual and yet also very innocent; outstanding acting. The cinematography was similarly excellent and enhanced the subject quite well. The problem with the movie is that the central conflict will have little effect on many people, and thus they will lose interest and not want to spend the effort to focus on the complex, philosophical story line.
Perhaps Brian Helgeland could have made this movie a different way or with a different script and achieved the effect he was hoping to create. Instead the movie spends far too much time on religious philosophy and on the shock of salvation by means other than religious beliefs, and many members of the audience will have a difficult time to relate.
Movie Review: A great deal of wasted potential.
Summary: 3 Stars
The Order (Brian Helgeland, 2003)There are so many people involved with this film who need to have the question "what the hell were you thinking?" asked to them.
The idea is fantastic. The head of an order of priests, Father Dominic (Francesco Carnelluti) is found dead in his apartment, leaving only two living priests in his sect, Alex (Heath Ledger, with whom Helgeland previously worked in A Knight's Tale) and Thomas (Mark Addy, who will forever be remembered as "the fat guy" from The Full Monty). The two of them, accompanied by a woman (Shannyn Sossamon) Alex has conflicting feelings about, travel to Rome on the orders of a high-ranking cardinal (Robocop's Peter Weller) to investigate Dominic's death, and along the way uncover a number of strange and wonderful things, including the last living Sin Eater, William Eden (Benno Furmann, who will be playing Siegfried in the upcoming film version of The Ring of the Nibelungs), who is in some way intimately connected with Dominic's death.
It all sounds fabulous on paper. And, to an extent, it is. But various factors kill the movie. Both Weller and Furmann deliver their lines as if someone told them, "sound as artificial as possible." Weller might as well still have the metal suit on. And the odd pair of "orphans" who hang around outside Dominic's apartment; I'm sure that, in a director's cut, we'd have some concrete idea of why they hang around Dominic, but a hypothesis is offered, and then the plot thread disappears into the distance, never to be heard from again.
One rather expects a level of ludicrousness from Ledger, Sossamon, and Helgeland, who between them were responsible for A Knight's Tale a few years back. This, however, goes beyond silly. It borders on brilliant, but stays just this side of bad. Which makes it seem even worse. ** ½
Movie Review: OUT OF ORDER
Summary: 3 Stars
Brian Helgeland the director has given us this film, A KNIGHT'S TALE and Mel Gibson's PAYBACK. Helgeland the writer has given us MYSTIC RIVER and LA CONFIDENTIAL. Maybe he should stick to writing, as his screenplay for this movie is so shoddily written, it makes the film incoherent, dull, laughable and ultimately unsatisfying.Helgeland has reunited three of his stars from A KNIGHTS TALE: Heath Ledger, Mark Addy and Shannon Sossamyn. Ledger and Sossamyn have the looks to be stars; Addy has the buddy support syndrome down pretty pat.
Now, what this film is about ultimately is a person called a "Sin Eater." This mysterious figure eats the sins of those who have been ostracized or condemned by the church, but one never knows whether this is a good or bad character. Helgeland's script also numbs this. The inclusion of the little boy and girl demons is never explained; there are some really dull sequences and the strange bar in the Vatican wholly incredible.
Peter Weller's bald cardinal wants to be Pope is also poorly written and mediocrally performed.
Ledger has one very effective scene that occurs with the apparent suicide of his love. It's the strongest acting moment in the film.
Sossamyn is beautiful for sure, and plays her strange part rather well (why did she try to kill Ledger? It's never fully explained).
Addy and Ledger's chemistry is not as effective as it was in Knight's Tale.
In this time of troubles for the Catholic Church, a film like THE ORDER will certainly not benefit their credence in the religious community. Ledger's fall from grace likewise paints a poor portrait of the clergy.
THE ORDER is not a horrible film, but it's not all that great either.
Movie Review: More like 3.5 stars
Summary: 3 Stars
This is a movie that you can't stop in the middle and do something else. I made that mistake and it lost its whole spell on me.
Having said that it's a pretty OK movie where evil and Catholicism are concerned. Heath Ledger's character is a priest whose mentor has died. Not that's a problem itself, but he's been excommunicated and cannot be buried in holy ground because of this. Alex, Ledger's character, does it anyway, but not before noticing that there are marks on his body that correspond to that of a Sin Eater, a human who can offer absolution outside of the Catholic Church. That's obviously a huge no no.
The plot is about him trying to find the Sin Eater and destroy him, but the ending holds a nice twist that you probably weren't looking for. It's a bit weird though. I wouldn't have ended the film like that.
I don't think this is Ledger's finest work, but it's not bad. He was a very good actor, one whose films I'll continue to watch for years to come. I felt that Sossamon's character of Mara was very underused. I wish there would have been more of her in this film.
It's a good film if you like dark suspense, and dark films. It's definately not for those who don't like to see Catholicism in a bad light, but I didn't feel it was shown negatively, only that some within the Church are evil as opposed to the entire thing.
I will say this, and this is a spoiler, the choice to use Peter Weller in the second role, or at least his voice, was a very bad idea. His voice is very distinctive and I don't see how any could not have picked it out in a crowd.
Movie Review: Dark And Delightful
Summary: 3 Stars
After reading numerous critics' reviews of this movie, I went in with the lowest of expectations. In fact, if not for the insistence of my wife, I wouldn't have even bothered checking it out. I admit to being pleasantly surprised. I'd give it a solid 3.5 stars.This movie delves into the dark side of the Catholic church. Peter Weller is delightfully evil as the "dark pope." Heath Ledger is solid as always. Jon Laurimore turns in a solid, awesome performance as the "Sin Eater", and Shannyn Sassamon gives the only questionable performance. I just couldn't figure out if she was trying to really get into her mentally disturbed character, or if she was too sleepy to really care.
As for the story, I thoroughly enjoyed it. The pacing was great for me. This is not an in your face, gross out, thrill a minute, jump out of your seat movie. It gets under your skin, and deep in the dark recesses of your mind. It's creepy and disturbing.
The movie highlights some fallacies within the beliefs and hiearchy of Catholicism. It is a dark fantasy, and should be accepted as such. If you aren't certain about it, wait for the DVD, but one way or the other, I think you'll enjoy it.