The premise of "The Order" is not nearly as ridiculous as the actual movie treats it. A young priest, Alex Brenier (Heath Ledger), belongs to a small, cult-like denomination of Catholicism called either Carolinians or Carolingians (it seems to be almost a joke in the movie how often the pronunciation is changed). After hearing of the mysterious death of the sect leader, Alex leaves his New York congregation to investigate the cause of death in Rome, where he is thrown into the sordid underbelly of religious mysticism. He is joined by the strikingly beautiful mental hospital escapee Mara (Shannyn Sossamon) and a portly fellow priest, Thomas (Mark Addy). Though Ledger carries the brunt of the poorly written and choppy script, Sossamon seems to get stuck with all of the truly horrible lines. Once she even makes a metaphor comparing dead priests to wool.
There are so many poorly conceived and executed ideas in this movie, it is hard to know where to begin the list. Addy, meant to supply comic relief, fails to elicit a single chuckle and is seemingly forgotten about halfway through the movie. Another raised eyebrow comes when we learn that Mara once tried to kill Alex and was put in an asylum. After escaping, she seeks him out, whereupon he agrees to take her on his voyage to Rome. The fact that Ledger can deliver the question, "You promise you won't try to kill me again?" with a straight face is a credit to his acting ability.
Upon arrival in Rome, Alex and Thomas venture into Rome's dark allies and graveyards, seeking the truth about their mentor's death. They stumble upon an ancient art known as "sin eating," which allows unholy individuals to be freed of their sins through a Sin Eater. The Sin Eater is played by Benno Furman, who is just paying the bills.
The Sin Eater, who has been alive for 600 years, is looking for a successor and has secretly groomed Alex to pick up the lost art once he steps down. While all of this is happening, a completely unbelievable romance is developing between Mara and Alex, putting his position as a priest in jeopardy. Some scenes have the potential to be interesting, but they are played out with such choppy film cuts and poor lighting that one barely notices the bizarre and unexplained characters that pop up everywhere. There is Shirak, the masked executioner who kills other masked men in order to gain knowledge. Later Alex and Thomas stumble upon demon children seemingly lifted directly out of "The Ring," and a pit of temptation which fires metal bolts at the angered Thomas. These peculiar and entirely unnecessary non sequiturs serve only to clutter the middle of the movie, which is shot in such underexposed film that I found myself wishing for a flashlight to illuminate the dark parts of the screen. The daytime scenes are shot on blue film; to what purpose this serves remains a mystery to this viewer.
The strongest aspects of the film are the long sweeping shots of Rome and panoramic views from within St. Peter's Cathedral, but these are all too infrequent. The fact that this movie borrows heavily from the Martin Scorsese classic, "The Last Temptation of Christ," serves only to make if painfully obvious that director Brian Helgeland had no idea how to rescue his own dismal script from spiraling this mess of a movie into the realm of film oblivion.