The Order he-said-she-said movie review

by Chris and Kris   ⋅   January 2, 2004   ⋅   Comment now   ⋅    RSS

Happy New Year! We’d thought we’d throw ya a curve ball with this unassuming flick. It’s appropriate, as Resolutions stand to “eat” our Sins, right? Anyhoo, enjoy!

SHE SAID:Trailers suck. Suck ass. Especially when they try to blast a decent film into blockbuster status, perhaps forcing the interesting bits to drown on the cutting room floor in pre-release angst. This is what I fear happened to The Order.

Amongst the welcome quirky dialogue (although mostly spat out like a well-rehearsed history lesson), dodgy CGI, and sometimes mediocre editing, lies a remarkable storyline with honest potential. Tackling subject matter that hasn’t been touched successfully (in American cinema) since the Exorcist, scriptwriter/Director Brian Helgeland (who wrote/co-wrote Bloodwork, A Knight’s Tale, L.A. Confidential, Mystic River, Nightmare on Elm Street 4, Payback, etc… impressed yet?) drones out of touch inconsistently, but brings it back around in time for the tidy ending. Predictable events dilute the elements of mystery– the great suspenseful skin-crawling moments which are actually done quite well. Nice introduction of what it is to have Faith and to retain it in a selfless way, even though your beliefs are what creates the means to damn you.

Also, Faith in Love, Truth, and the fellow man follow up nicely in theory, although a bit sloppily portrayed in its execution. The prefabricated loyalty between Ledger and Mark Addy (the chubster sweetie from The Full Monty) works mostly because of Addy’s endearing qualities. Ledger’s deep baritone worked well in this role, combined with his normal vanilla visage (although he’s looking more and more ”Val Kilmer”). Shannyn Sossamon’s wonderfully monotone sarcastic chants ended up sounding incredibly “cue-card” here. Oddly, the topic of Lust vs. Love never appears, even when Heath gives up his entire lifestyle to boink a cute dame. With a boozehound and a chain-smoking Cardinal as his “holy peers”, I’m sure the audience would forgive him if he suddenly stopped denying his actions were embossed in love, only love.

The deleted scenes, unfortunately, allowed for a broader artistic design and explanation (think 28 Days Later cinematography). I think it would have worked much better if the audience were given a taste of these quieter moments juxtaposed with the urgency of Chance and Faith. Some scenes, ideas and characters reminiscent of Rosemary’s Baby or The Shining were introduced only to be forgotten. The true main character (for which the UK title remained, but was switched for us dumb Americans*– Marketing said we wouldn’t understand what a Sin Eater was) was dull at best. In retrospect, his persona would have been enough to carry the entire film, but something didn’t mesh. If Chris Cunningham were somehow involved, it would’ve rocked! *Personally, I like the title change. It brings to realization the order of events, order of the papal state (Gli Stati della Chiesa), the order of our human existence.

So if we believe that everyone on this Earth has a purpose for existing, we must believe that there are some that are prepared or even destined to save us. That is the externalization rule of the Western religion, isn’t it? Anyways, what is interesting in the film, is when the supernatural attacked, it was banal to the priests, almost commonplace. (They are, after all, used to exorcisms and the Evils of Mankind). Even though the Carolingian are a dying concept so they weren’t seen as formidable foes, they didn’t adopt a quasi-ego nor an anti-hero personality; they just handled it pragmatically.

Although I loved that aspect, I was disappointed at how pragmatic the script winded down to. It reminded me of Soul Survivors, which could have been incredible, but only in retrospect was it actually pretty cool. (Then again, I have a humongous crush on Casey Affleck). Highlight: Peter Weller, as always, is a hoot and a holler and well worth the ten minutes you see him. Side note: the costume designer, Caroline Harris, sure must have a hard-on for Shannyn Sossamon in chartreuse. (Not everyone can pull this colour off– she is THAT pretty).

Like A Knight’s Tale, it was enjoyable and interesting– just needed a bit of tailoring to glue imagery to the awesome concept. Overall, wonderful job at trying to bring oddball occult storylines to the big screen!

HE SAID: Well, I can’t say I was interested in The Order when I first saw the trailer, either. It made it look all flashy with priests going to stupid raves in order to find the demonic secret to, well, The Order. In fact, the only reason that made me want to finally see this film was the fact that the previous screenplays Brian Helgeland had churned out had actually turned out pretty cool. That, and Shannyn Sossamon is oh so hot.

Again, whether my expectations were so lowered that I expected absolutely nothing good, or whether I’m riding high on the Holiday Spirit, The Order managed to entertain me. The story revolves around Alex Bernier (Heath Ledger), a young priest of the dying Carolingian order, trying to track down a nefarious “Sin Eater” responsible for the death of his mentor, Father Dominic, and put an end to his days as a scalper of tickets to heaven. You see, the Catholic Church doesn’t dig his “gimme cash and I’ll eat your sins” dealie one bit. They want butts in their seats and blind subscription to the whole repentance, fear, and regret thing. Otherwise, without the masses’ contributions to their offering plates, they’d be out of a job. In fact, that was part of the reason Father Dominic (Alex’s mentor) was excommunicated from their church. Believing in devils and ghosts was one thing, but trying to preach to folks a stigmatic belief that the direct line to god lay within their own hearts, rather than a confessional booth at their local church–well, to them that’s bordering on heresy. Anyways, back to young Alex. The fact that the young, attractive woman (Shannyn Sossamon) for whom he performed an exorcism during the past year, has taken up residence in his lonely abode, isn’t helping him much in his search for the offending sin binger. He knows he’s unable to return the love his young guest feels, not because he doesn’t feel it himself, but because of his job. He begins to question his faith, his heart, the nature of sin-eating, as well as the impetus behind his decision to become a priest in the first place. On his journey he discovers that love finds a way through all boundaries, things are not always as they seem, and truth can be the ultimate undoing for blind faith.

I can’t say the film is saying anything fresh or new, but I do enjoy the questions it raises regarding faith, the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church, and the nature of love. Luckily Brian Helgeland has enough faith in his audience’s intelligence that he doesn’t have to spell out every little thing for them, so the dialogue stays fresh and interesting the whole way through. The film has a very 70’s supernatural thriller feel, a la The Legacy and The Exorcist, and is therefore a refreshing change from the ultra slick, ultra hip “thrillers” American audiences subject themselves to these days. Ledger is a competent actor with definite presence on the screen, and helps lend an air of believability to his role. Unfortunately, Shannyn Sossamon doesn’t have much to do with the little time she has on screen and seems to give a fairly wooden, “phoned in” performance. But in retrospect, they’re both much better performances than you would see in a lot of today’s horror films.

While not the greatest thriller I’ve seen recently, I did enjoy it. It kept me interested from start to finish, and for that I can’t complain. I won’t say it’s a great film, but if you’ve got a rainy day and a few bucks for a rental you won’t regret checking it out.

About the Authors:

Chris Nelson and Kris Kobayashi-Nelson are the happily married and proud co-founders of dreamlogic.net. The adventurous soulmates occasionally take a break from ghost hunting, prank pulling, programming, jazz club lounging and kitty wrangling to view some wicked cool flicks and share ‘em with you. Enjoy!

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