The Order

Directed by Brian Helgeland
Starring: Heath Ledger,Shannon Sossamon,Mark Addy,Benno Furman,Peter Weller


To be honest with you guys, I never did give much attention to Heath Ledger. That is until his brilliant performance as the Joker. In this film he faces a dark knight of a different sort. Director Helgeland who also directed A Knight's Tale  brings half the cast from that film with him to make this one.Ledger portrays Alex, a young Priest torn between his work for God and his love for a woman ( Sossamon ) an ex mental patient. Alex is sent to Rome to investigate the mysterious death of his mentor, where he confronts a sin eater. Sin eaters are immortal priests gone astray who can consume the sins of the dying. With their sins eaten they can get absolution before they die. Or something like that. This starts off a little slow until Robocop shows up with a  religious artifact to destroy the sin eater. Peter Weller plays Driscoll, a chain smoking priest in possession of  the mysterious dagger.
Ledger as the confused young Priest plays the part  convincingly, lusting for a female yet devoted his life to the church. The addition of Addy makes for some welcome moments of comic relief  but doesn't last long as his character Father Thomas' life is endangered many times. Furman as the Sin Eater plays the part cool and confident and comes across less evil than we are first intended to believe. Alex even surrenders the dagger that is supposed to destroy the sin eater over to him. But the sin eater has bigger plans intended for Alex, even bigger than his death.
There are plenty of dark and daunting interior images of churches that could  even creep out the most  profane. Other images high on the creep factor include a pair of children who are actually demon spawn. The basement of a techno dance club literally could be the fiery bowels of hell with it's depravity of sins and torture in abundance.
I'm not quite sure if the funky optical effects belong in this film, but The Order does deserve to have a look see.
My Final Thoughts: This is definitely not the best of the man of the cloth fighting his inner demons movie, but Ledger's Alex makes for an interesting character.

My Rating: Two and a half Go Go Girls out of Five