ather Dominic was an outcast priest from a moribund order, yet his death proves to be anything but insignificant. It brings the likes of Cardinal Driscoll (Weller) to the small New York parish of Alex Bernier (Ledger), a priest who was mentored by Dominic and is known for his esoteric understanding and experience with evil.
The cardinal wants Bernier to come to Rome to investigate Dominic's mysterious death, which he believes not to be the suicide it appears. The young priest obeys, but not before asking his old friend and fellow order member, the rough-and-ready Father Thomas Garrett (Addy), to come with him. Though that's not the only soul Alex will have with him on his journey.
As he's preparing to leave, Alex is visited by Mara (Sossamon), a young woman who once tried to kill him, recently escaped from the mental institution in which she was recovering. Forgiving as he is and revealing a certain strange tenderness that seems to exist between the two, Alex gives in to Mara's pleas to take her with him to the holy Vatican City.
Once in Rome, the three take up residence in Father Dominic's old home, a dark and dusty place filled with countless books and parchments, and begin their investigation. What they soon find is truly troubling—Dominic's body and the manner in which he died show signs of a "sin eater," a cryptic, heretical figure also known in the texts Alex finds as "The Other."
Realizing the church itself won't be willing to entertain pursuing this "Other" (despite having Driscoll, a man in line for the papacy itself, on their side), Alex and Thomas seek out the help of a sinister figure in the bowels of Rome, who tells them that this Other has a name, William Eden (Fürmann), and that it is Eden who is seeking out Alex. For a man forever thirsting for knowledge, perhaps ignorance is bliss.
Not entirely making order out of chaos
Though it's somewhat reminiscent of the likes of The Exorcist (and its several spawn of recent years, e.g., Stigmata) and The Ninth Gate, The Order does have an intriguing story and appealing style very much its own, though it's not without its flaws. On the whole, a more ambitious and sophisticated viewing experience than A Knight's Tale, writer/director/producer Brian Helgeland's variously off 2001 rock-n-roll medieval adventure (which also starred Ledger, Sossamon and Addy), this genre pic does trip on its own heavy robes, at times.
The narrative is a challenging one, as dark and twisted as a catacomb, and can be quite compelling. A few loose ends, some all-too-convenient plot events and the occasional goofy bit of dialogue cause this story to stumble now and again, however. And while The Order has a good amount of both genuinely creepy and fairly powerful moments, some awkward pacing (perhaps the offspring of direction not quite suited to suspense-horror and the sin of Hollywood executives cutting for length) undermines some of these.
In addition to having some very rich and stylish visuals, The Order is blessed with a number of rather good performances. Weller's Cardinal Driscoll is a wonderful, if strange, curiosity. (Could it be any other way?) The rest of the principals also bring some great energy to their roles—the Knight's Tale alums showing some real chemistry with one another and Fürmann adding a fair amount of ominousness and seduction to the film.
In the end, The Order shows its sophistication by not oversimplifying things, by reveling in and not cutting away the complications that arise with any profound consideration of good and evil. But paired with the good ambiguousness in this film is some bad ambiguousness—the kind that can leave audiences scratching their heads, wondering what exactly happened and what exactly the message was. Maybe this is the point at which faith is supposed to kick in?
