Other Titles • The Order (2003) • The Sin Eater • The Order/ The Sin Eater
Synopses for The Order (2003)
1.
Alex Bernier (Heath Ledger) is a member of an arcane order of priests who is sent to Rome to investigate the mysterious death of the head of this order. The body may be of a Sin Eater, a renegade who offers absolution. last rites and therefore a path to heaven outside the jurisdiction of the church. Alex enlists the aid of his old comrade Father Thomas and of a troubled artist (Shannyn Sossamon) upon whom he once performed an exorcism. He soon finds himself plunged directly into the face of unimaginable evil, murder and ultimately, a fate worse than death.
(15 votes)
2.
Writer-director Brian Helgeland tried something different with The Order, and surely that counts for something. This brooding supernatural thriller was immediately dismissed by critics, and it's easy to see why it flopped: it's full of solemn, quasi-religious ruminations, it's murky in both visual and thematic content, and it demands the viewer's focused attention, which amounts to pissing in the shallow pool of big-studio filmmaking. And yet those qualities also give The Order some modest cult potential, as it tells the story of Alex (Heath Ledger, star of Helgeland's A Knight's Tale), a rebellious priest from an arcane fringe of Catholicism, who investigates the death of his excommunicated mentor and discovers the existence of a modern day "sin eater," capable of cleansing souls of evil, who has chosen Alex as his would-be successor. A troubled love interest (Knight's Tale costar Shannyn Sossamon) and an evil cardinal (Peter Weller) offer hope and damnation, respectively, but it's up to individual viewers to decide if The Order offers anything of lasting interest. --Jeff Shannon
(14 votes)
3.
For centuries, a secret Order has existed within the Church. Following a series of unexplained murders, a renegade priest (Heath Ledger) begins an investigation that hurls him into a maelstrom of unimaginable evil, murder and the knowledge that there is a fate worse than death.
The priest's search takes him to The Sin Eater – a key figure in this mysterious and ancient Order. The immortal Sin Eater's role is nothing less than playing God on earth by absolving the unforgivable of their sins outside the Church, allowing great evil to go unpunished. Burdened with centuries of evil, The Sin Eater craves the luxury of death. But who will eat his sins and grant eternal peace? Who will carry on his dark tradition and continue the work of the Order? As the young priest uncovers the answers and pursues these paragons of evil, he fights to save his own soul and that of the woman he loves.
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