Review of The Order (2003) by Riccardo Antonio R — 31 Mar 2012

I will forgive those who deserve freedom. And the makers of this film deserve no such thing.

I was really hoping it wouldn't come to this. And by "come to this", I mean, yet another bad movie review. I was so let down by this film. I thought I was going to see a great religious thriller, and this is what they give me?

The Story: A priest investigates the "suicide" of his mentor, only to find that there's more to it than just a simple death...He loses his faith, falls in love, and...Well, it's nothing amazing...There's a sense of style here, that seems to come to and go throughout the film, there's a few special effects here and there, and there's a fair amount of action, but over all the story really failed to engage me...

The Cast: Heath Ledger, Mark Addy, Shannyn Sossamon, Benno Furmann. This is a cast of what I like to call "fading characters". Meaning this, the characters come and go as needed. When the mood is right, you'll see Shannyn Sossamon, but she has a tendency to dissapear every once in a while. At one point in the film, Mark Addy actually just shows up from pretty much nowhere! I hate it when things like this happen. It makes the film seem less believable, and more absurd. And neither Heath Ledger or Mark Addy made very believable priests. The only one here I was even close to being impressed by was Benno Furmann, and even then I wasn't too impressed. The characters didn't seem very fleshed out, they didn't seem very real, and sometimes they just ceased to exist! This is not what makes for a good spooky religious thriller.

One to Five Scale: 2.

There's much better religious thrillers out there. This one just wasn't too creepy, nor atmospheric enough for my tastes. The characters came and went as needed, the story failed to impress, and the style came and went like the characters. Avoid this one and watch something else. If you're looking for a good creepy religious experience go watch the Excorcist or even Constantine.

Tyler.