Movie reviews: The Order (2003)
The Order (2003) Starring Heath Ledger, Shannon Sossamon, Peter Weller, Benno Furmann, Mark Addy, Francesco Carnelutti, Mattia Sbragia, Mirko Casaburo, Giulia Lombardi, Richard Bremmer, Cristina Macca, Paola Emilia Villa, Rosalinda Celentano, Alessandra Costanzo, Davide Odore, David Ambrosi, Steve Toussaint, Barbara Pastrovich.
Directed by Brian Helgeland.
Running time: 102 minutes
Rating: R
“Sometimes when you look into the abyss, the abyss looks back into YOU!”
A Catholic priest named Alex Bernier (Ledger) from a secret order called the Carolinians, is plucked from banishment in New York City by a mysterious Cardinal (Weller) to investigate the deaths of other members of that order.
His artist girlfriend Mara (Sossamon) who had tried to kill him escapes from her mental hospital room to join him on the adventure. Don’t you just hate it when your homicidal maniac girlfriend does that? I’m sure every guy does just like every woman hates it when she is dating a Catholic priest from a secret order stalked by demonic children and a sin eater (Furmann). Hollywood can be absolutely marvellous when it comes to giving us simple believability in terms of plot.
I didn’t buy Heath Ledger as a member of the Catholic clergy anymore than I bought Peter Weller as one. The whole thing is patently absurd from the fourth scene onward. You get illogical scenes with creepy Italian dudes wearing hoods and other visual extravagance which creates very little to help the wonky plot.
The dialogue is very awkward and it makes the acting seem a good deal worse than it otherwise might. That said, the reaction shots here have to be seen to be believed and much of the rest of the performances are comprised of poor decisions to heighten non-existent suspense. Early on when Sossamon’s character first appears she takes an overly dramatic pause just to say the word “Hi”.
There are not really any ways of toning down the darker elements of this movie that would make it tasteful. The sinister seediness is its main hook. It would appear that the braintrust behind this did not set out to make anything interesting or meaningful on purpose and did not make anything interesting or meaningful by accident.
They simply took the premise of Vatican conspiracy (literally underground) and moviegoers renewed fascination with immortality and the supernatural to create a silly metaphysical thriller vehicle for Ledger and Sossamon. The result came off a lot worse than similar themed bad movies like the Da Vinci Code or Constantine did.
To call this incoherent rubbish “sacrilegious” would be flattering to those that made it. Because for it to be sacrilegious would indicate it actually has meaning of some kind. It is not a “beautiful mistake” it is a profoundly stupid one.
If you borrow the DVD as I did you’ll that a remarkable amount of footage hit the cutting room floor. Poor planning can result the loss of untold millions in production value. Most of that which got cut could easily have remained in the film and it would not have made for any more or any less sense than it did as a final product.
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