The Order (The Sin Eater) (2003)
Average Rating: 2.9/10
Reviews Counted: 57
Fresh: 5 | Rotten: 52
A religious thriller that's more lethargic and silly than thrilling.
Average Rating: 2.6/10
Critic Reviews: 12
Fresh: 0 | Rotten: 12
A religious thriller that's more lethargic and silly than thrilling.
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Average Rating: 2.8/5
User Ratings: 22,334
Movie Info
Oscar-winning screenwriter Brian Helgeland writes and directs the religious thriller The Order. Heath Ledger portrays a priest from a secret religious order called The Carolingians. He's sent to Rome to investigate the mysterious death of the head of the Carolingians, whose body was found with strange marks on its chest. While in Rome, he asks for help from an old friend (Mark Addy) and an elusive artist Shannyn Sossamon to help solve the murder. The priest ends up at the Vatican, where he
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Cast
-
Heath Ledger
Father Alex Bernier -
Shannyn Sossamon
Mara Sinclair -
Benno Fürmann
The Sin Eater -
Mark Addy
Father Thomas Garrett -
Peter Weller
Driscoll -
Francesco Carnelutti
Dominic -
Paola Emilia Villa
Sister Mary -
Giulia Lombardi
Little Girl -
Mirko Casaburo
Little Boy
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All Critics (57) | Top Critics (12) | Fresh (5) | Rotten (52) | DVD (4)
Devout Catholics will be appalled; everyone else will be asleep.
Top CriticThe picture is so lethargic that I began to think of watching it as a form of atonement.
It's The Exorcist warmed over.
May be the nadir of the subgenre that produced The Exorcist (at its high end) and Stigmata (at its middle-to-low end).
The movie would be perfect material for a resurrected version of the TV spoof Mystery Science Theater.
A supernaturally silly drama about priests, exorcism, sin-eaters and Heath Ledger struggling with such pious problems as how to keep his fake Euro accent in place.
There's little reason to watch this mess.
"The Order" is a halfhearted "supernatural thriller"%u2014interpret as not an actual "horror" movie...
It's long on atmosphere and whispered moments of creepy discovery.
This has to be one of the most inconsequential films dealing with religion ever made.
... it has a curious disorder, one that makes it both interesting and pallid.
It's preposterous, silly rather than frightening, and the performances and characterizations have a pot-boiler feel.
Frequently descends into unintentional hilarity, nervous camp, and eventually exasperation.
As the movie's promotion intimates, 'There is a fate worse than death,' and you got it - it's sitting through this movie.
My dear Brian Helgeland, lack of originality is a sin. Eat it.
A miserably dark and sluggish picture to endure. Helgeland and his stars have hopefully observed last rites on this and moved on to bigger and (especially) better things.
...the movie makes little sense even for a guy more than willing to suspend his disbelief, as I was.
Blood in. Blood out. Eye roll.
From the casting to the plot to the monologues that come off sounding like SNL jokes, everything here is just plain sloppy.
The film's failed gothic look is just ugly, so forcibly dank that important details, like which characters are in a certain scene, sometimes get lost.
In what church is Heath Ledger a priest? And who are the nuns - Heather Graham and Tara Reid?
All the fine cinematography can't hide the sad fact that the second half of the film delivers none of the shocks and starts required of atmospheric horror.
The Order is scuzzy and lazy, such a muddle that no one really need be offended. Actually, no one need even bother with it all. That's why I'm being paid in this space, to spare you the temptation.
Most bad horror movies at least offer the compensation of being unconsciously funny. The Order just makes you wish you were unconscious.
The ABC's of the plot are nearly mystifying, and once you have everything figured out you'll realize that the end result was hardly worth all the effort.
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Movie: ID: 14441 Title: The Order (The Sin Eater) Release Date: 2003-09-05 00:00:00.0 MPAA: 4 Status: 1
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Foreign Titles
- The Order (DE)
- The Sin Eater (UK)
