Order Out

Trolling for movies to "help pay" for my HBO subscription, I recently recorded The Order, a 2003 movie starring Heath Ledger. I vaguely remembered seeing a trailer for the film many years ago that made it look possibly interesting. And the plot synopsis was intriguing -- a self-doubting priest comes into contact with an immortal being with the power to devour the sins of humans. An exorcism-themed movie with a twist?

I probably should have checked out the film's Rotten Tomatoes score before trying out the movie: it's rated a pathetic 9%. And while I thought the movie wasn't truly that bad, it was certainly a long way from good.

Actually, more than anything, it was just boring. What starts off with the trappings of horror quickly gives way to a strangely dull take on a strangely warped "hero's journey." (Anti-hero's journey?) The raw material is compelling and different enough that it kept me tuned in all the way to the end, but the script itself never rose to be worthy of the ideas in it. The film remained bland and predictable.

Though it did have one more check in the "plus" column -- the performance of Heath Ledger. Oh, it's by no means award-caliber, but this movie showed that he was an actor who would give a performance of equal intensity and integrity whether the movie was as well-regarded as The Dark Knight or Brokeback Mountain, or... well, kinda schlocky like this. I think with nearly any other actor in the role, the film would have crossed the line into unintentional camp. Somehow, with Ledger it remains serious.

Still, you'd be digging down deep in the barrel to come up with this movie. I'd call it a middle-of-the-road C. While there are easily worse movies, there's also little reason to spend your time on his one.