Film Review: The Order (The Sin Eater, 2003)

Some Hollywood films, either by design or accident, can serve something that resembles educational purpose. At least this happens when they use obscure but fascinating cultural or religious practices as their premise. One such film is The Order a.k.a. The Sin Eater, 2003 supernatural mystery thriller written and directed by Brian Helgeland, which, sadly, like so many Hollywood films, doesn’t use this premise to its full potential.

Protagonist, played by Heath Ledger, is Father Alex Bernier, Catholic priest from New York City who is also member of Carolingians, (fictious) religious order specialised in fighting demons. He is increasingly disillusioned with his work, which included exorcism on Mara Williams (played by Shannyn Sossamon), young artist who was sent to mental hospital after trying to kill him during procedure. Mara has escaped and asks shelter from Alex just as Alex gets called by his mentor, Cardinal Driscoll (played by Peter Weller), to come to Rome and investigate suspicious death of Father Dominic (played by Francesco Carnelutti), head of Carolingian order. Alex goes there and is assisted by Thomas Garrett (played by Mark Addy), an old friend and fellow Carolingian. They discover that Father Dominic has been apparently excommunicated and probably involved in some strange ritual related to Sin Eater, near mythical figure that is able to take away people’s sins and thus allow dying person to ascend to heaven. Alex manages to track the man named William Eden (played by Benno Fürmann), who has accumulated enormous wealth over centuries by helping powerful sinners. Eden explains that he is tired and wants to die, which can be achieved only if he is stabbed during specific ritual.

Sin-eating is concept that, in various forms, has existed among different cultures and religions, but the most common and recognisable form, at least in the West, is a folk custom first recorded in 17th Century Wales. Brian Helgeland, who has previously had success with light-hearted period action comedy A Knight’s Tale, apparently saw its use as premise for plot as a way to show ability to make completely different films. Although sin eating had little to do with Catholicism per se, Helgeland decided to give it specifically Catholic angle, in order to use more exotic and effective visuals, Rome scenery and motives recognisable to many fans of horror and supernatural thriller films since The Exorcist. While this served well as an excuse for some fine cinematography by Nicola Pecorini, the script tried to stuff too many different stories – demon hunting, clerical celibacy and intrigues within Catholic Church – into a single film, resulting in messy, undeveloped and often contradictory story. Helgeland brought some of the talent from A Knight’s Tale - Ledger, Sossamon and Addy – back to this film . Ledger and Addy, provided viewers with couple of entertaining scenes and good “buddy buddy” dynamic, but those efforts failed to improve general impression of potentially fascinating premise being predictably wasted for subpar Hollywood product.

RATING: 4/10 (+)

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