Overview:
Fascinated by stories of the mediaeval British "sin eaters", screenwriter/director Brian Helgeland penned the script for The Sin Eater in 1998. The film uses the modern day Roman Catholic Church as the backdrop for a psychological, spiritual and philosophical thriller.

Originally slated to star Antonio Banderas and Paul Bettany, the film was to begin production in 1999. Banderas backed out and 20th Century Fox balked at the relatively unknown Bettany, so the project was shelved. Fast forward to a few years later... Helgeland recruited three actors -- Heath Ledger, Shannyn Sossamon and Mark Addy -- from his previous stint in the director's chair, 2001's A Knight's Tale. (Oddly enough, Bettany was in A Knight's Tale, but wasn't available for filming.)

The story revolves around Alex Bernier (Ledger), a Catholic priest working in inner-city New York parish. Bernier is called upon by Cardinal Driscoll (Peter Weller), who informs Bernier that his mentor Dominic, a defrocked Carolingian priest, has died in Rome under mysterious circumstances. Bernier is dispatched to Italy to investigate, dragging with him one Mara Sinclair (Sossamon), an escaped mental patient who once attempted to take his life during an exorcism. They are joined in Rome by Bernier's friend and fellow priest Thomas Garrett (Mark Addy), also a former student of Dominic. Bernier and Garrett discover that Dominic's death is somehow linked to the enigmatic William Eden (Benno Fürmann, a last minute replacement for Vincent Cassel).

Filmed on location in Italy -- including shooting at Rome's famed Cinecitta Studios, where Saint Peter's Basilica was recreated -- in early 2002, Fox first scheduled the film's release in January 2003. Test screenings forced the studio to redo several of the visual effects, delaying the release. Also changed was the title for North American release. Without much press (usually a bad omen), Fox released the film in September 2003 as The Order. (The movie retained the title The Sin Eater for its British and Australian runs).

Personal Comments:
While I enjoyed the film, I couldn't help walking out of the theatre thinking that the story suffered from efforts to trim its length down to its running time of 102 minutes. Several characters and plot devices were introduced early on, then left ignored. Helgeland seems tentative to name the source of the evil that plagues Bernier et al throughout the film, and it's this tentativeness that neuters the impact of the film's closing moments. As far as I'm concerned, if you have an 'R' rating, then you don't have to worry about restless children, so letting the film run an extra 10-15 minutes to flesh out the story isn't necessarily a bad thing. It is conceivable, however, that Fox ordered certain edits to both shorten the film and to avoid provoking Roman Catholics and the religious right. It'll be interesting to see the deleted scenes on the DVD, as some of my lingering questions may be answered.

The promotional material for The Order, as well as its title, falsely implies that Bernier and Addy are investigating a rogue order of priests who operate in the seedy underworld beneath the Vatican. Helgeland is on record as saying that Fox was spooked by the furor surrounding Mel Gibson's upcoming The Passion, and that the studio deliberately avoided mentioning any religious content. The film's U.S. trailer was made so secular that I found it to be disturbingly similar to that of the "evil college fraternity" movie The Skulls, rather than a religious thriller/mystery movie.

The bottom line is that if you enjoyed 1999's Stigmata, then you'll appreciate The Order. The film scores points for quoting Keats and Wilde, but loses twice again as much for crappy dialogue, too many loose ends with the plot and some dated-looking special effects. I'll go with 8 filled in squares (out of 12).
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Ratings:
US & Canada: R // Germany: 16 // UK: 15

Cast & Crew:

Brian Helgeland..................Director/Screenwriter/Producer
Craig Baumgarten.................Producer  
Thomas M. Hammel.................Executive Producer  
Michael Kuhn.....................Executive Producer  
Giovanni Lovatelli...............Co-Producer  
David Tom........................Original Music
Nicola Pecorini..................Cinematographer
Kevin Stitt......................Film Editor
Donna Isaacson...................Casting
Miljen Kreka Kljakovic...........Production Designer
  
Heath Ledger.....................Alex Bernier 
Shannyn Sossamon.................Mara Sinclair 
Benno Fürmann....................William Eden 
Mark Addy........................Thomas Garrett 
Peter Weller.....................Cardinal Driscoll 
Francesco Carnelutti.............Dominic 
Mattia Sbragia...................Apathetic Bishop 
Mirko Casaburo...................Little Boy 
Giulia Lombardi..................Little Girl 
Richard Bremmer..................Bookstore Owner 
Cristina Maccà...................Sister Franca 
Paola Emilia Villa...............Sister Marie 
Rosalinda Celentano..............Faraway Eyes Girl 
Alessandra Costanzo..............Eden's Maid 
Paolo Lorimer....................Englishman 
Davide Odore.....................Young Eden 
John Karlsen.....................Eden's Manservant 
Fabrizio Lozzi...................Eden's Driver 
David Ambrosi....................Demon 
Adam Levy........................Master Builder 
Bruno Bilotta....................Bigger Bouncer 
Leagh Conwell....................Alex, 10 Years Old 
John Schwab......................American Bureaucrat 
Jon Laurimore....................Burnham, British Aristocrat 
Steve Toussaint..................New York Detective 
James Greene.....................British Doctor 
Luigi Basagaluppi................Father of Eden 
Michele Melega...................Morgue Attendant 
Emanuele Carucci Viterbi.........Priest at St. Peter's 
Richard Leaf.....................Sin Eater at St. Peter's 
Clive Riche......................Towncar Driver 
Alex Van Damme...................Club Bartender 
Barbara Pastrovich...............Irish Whore 
Seeta Indrani....................Indian Doctor (uncredited) 

Sources:
the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0304711/
20th Century Fox: The Order - http://theordermovie.com/
Yahoo!Movies: The Order, Greg's Preview - http://movies.yahoo.com/shop?d=hp&cf=prev&id=1808405890
Zap2it.com, "Gibson's 'Passion' Spells Trouble for 'The Order' " - http://www.zap2it.com/movies/news/pstory/0,3382,18453,00.html

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