Release Date: September 5, 2003
Starring: Heath Ledger, Shannyn Sossamon, Benno Fürmann, Mark Addy, Peter Weller
Directed by: Brian Helgeland
Written by: Brian Helgeland
Distributed by: 20th Century Fox Films
MPAA Rating: R (violent images, sexuality, language)
If you believe the promotional material, then The Order is a supernatural romantic thriller, the same genre sandwich approach that writer-director Brian Helgeland employed in his previous movie, A Knight's Tale (an anachronistic romantic action comedy). But studio publicity materials have a way of dressing up plain movies with big adjectives. In fact, The Order is like the Hollywood version of the famed airport paperback, the kind of generic, formulaic pulp fiction that is designed to please the audience's lowest common denominator.
In some ways, a bland thriller like The Order is the worst kind of movie, because it is so unremarkable that the only thing to say about it is that it's a waste of time. But anyone who follows movie industry gossip will have known this well in advance of The Order's theatrical release date, because the film, once known (and still currently listed overseas) as The Sin Eater, was held up about eight months because the special effects were deemed unintentionally comical by test audiences. It's not fair to judge a movie based on rumors like this, but it is worthwhile to note that the distributor, 20th Century Fox, clearly wasn't impressed with the changes: the film, once set to open in one of the industry's traditional "dump" month, January, was moved to the other great garbage heap on the calendar, August.
That a high profile project like this should suffer this fate is somewhat surprising, though, because Helgeland and a large part of his principal cast -- Heath Ledger, Shannyn Sossamon, and Mark Addy -- were involved in A Knight's Tale, which was a successful midsummer crowd-pleaser. By contrast The Order feels as cold as a rainy day in January. Its European setting, comprised mostly of the insides of churches, sanctuaries, graveyards, and underground conclaves, holds a bit of noirish style, but it also seems to swallow up the story. It chokes out any originality and fills it with elements to satisfy the expectations of a misinformed viewership that any story involving a conspiracy in the Catholic Church will surely also include secret orders, arcane rites and ceremonies, and a devious plot to overthrow the Pope. Throw in a bit of Aramaic, the dead language of Christ's time, and the formula is nearly complete.
In fact, it may seem to some viewers, especially those who enjoy movies like The Exorcist or Stigmata, that Aramaic may actually be more alive than ever, since it is usually the language of choice for rogue conspirators in the Church. In this case the chief conspirator is William Eden (Benno Fürmann), otherwise known as a sin eater -- a mysterious, somewhat pagan figure who "absorbs" the sins of individuals excommunicated from the Church so that they can still find absolution. He comes into the story when our hero, a priest named Alex Bernier (Ledger), is informed by his superior, Cardinal Driscoll (Peter Weller), that the head of Bernier's order has died, possibly at the hands of a sin eater. Bernier goes to Rome to investigate, but not before linking up with two old friends -- a fellow priest, Thomas Garrett (Addy), and Mara Sinclair (Sossamon), a woman he once saved by way of exorcism.
What follows is a straightforward mystery with very few frills. Bernier pokes around in the dusty alcoves of church basements, unearthing secret, long-hidden documents and organizations, quickly gathering the information he needs to lead him to the sin eater, William Eden. It seems as though Helgeland would like Bernier to be the pulp novel's typically conflicted hero with a hidden past that will return to haunt him at the worst moment possible, but Bernier doesn't have much time to be conflicted because The Order's plotting is very fleet. As quickly as it's unraveled, it's hard to see how the sin eaters have remained the mystery the story purports them to be for thousands of years.
Ledger does his best, moping about with a downcast demeanor and a frown permanently creased on his face (because, if you believe him, all priests are terminally unhappy). But he's out of his element here, much like he was in The Four Feathers, another weighty dramatic piece. Ledger is better at playing the straight man in more lighthearted films, sort of like a masculine, Australian version of Hugh Grant -- but, as his friend Thomas points out, Bernier doesn't get to do much smiling in The Order.
But neither would you, if you were in this story (or even, as it probably turns out, forced to watch it). There are some occasionally intriguing plot developments, like when it turns out that sin eaters achieve a limited level of immortality, making them more like fallen angels than pagan priests. Unfortunately the movie lets itself down too often: When it looks as though Helgeland will develop something interesting, such as the back-story of the sin eaters, another part of the movie usually gives out, such as the uninspired choice to cast the bland Benno Fürmann as the sin eater.
These are chances the movie can't afford to waste, because it has very few of them. Sossamon and Ledger are again paired as love interests (which of course takes some doing, considering that Ledger plays a priest, but Bernier is conveniently discontent and pulp fiction is probably the last place to look for a clerical character who takes his vows seriously) but don't generate the same spark they had in A Knight's Tale. Addy, too, is once more cast as Ledger's sidekick, but without the laughs in the script he's as good as dead -- and rest assured that the script tries to take him there several times (he wouldn't be a supporting character in a supernatural thriller otherwise).
Luckily for director Helgeland, he turned out two generally enjoyable movies before this (A Knight's Tale and the Mel Gibson starrer Payback), so he will still have a career afterwards. The difference between The Order and his earlier films is that this is a far more serious movie, and that may be where Helgeland went wrong; he has a knack for humor, even if it takes a convoluted genre sandwich to realize it.
-- Craig Roush (crr225@nyu.edu)