The Order comes across as an attempt at a return to the bygone days of horror, when films were serious, somber and brooding rather than loud, fast and violent. This is a noble aspiration, to be sure, and the fact that the film doesn't achieve it...is sort of a shame. At least its heart was in the right place...

The story follows the quest of a young New York priest Alex Bernier (Heath Ledger, attempting to remain constantly brooding-yet-adorable) who is one of the last remaining members of an obscure order of priests that specializes in dealing with the supernatural. When the head of his order is found dead in Rome, Alex is sent there to investigate the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death.

Of course, it would be foolish not to use Mr. Ledger to his full audience-drawing potential, so he is quickly given a girlfriend before shipping off for Rome. She is Mara, an escapee from a mental institution (put there for trying to stab Alex during her exorcism), and she is played by Shannyn Sossamon, who is either not a very good actress or a master of minimalism.

In Rome, Alex quickly discovers markings on the body of the head of his order. These eventually lead him to the discovery of a "sin-eater," a renegade priest who is able to take on the sins of others by performing a special sacrament. It seems that this sin-eater (Benno Fürmann, of the non-horror yet highly recommended, Princess and the Warrior) has been roaming Italy, absolving, for a requisite price, damned and excommunicated souls in order to get them into heaven.

It is after meeting the sin-eater that the movie starts to take a turn for the worse. Basically, once Alex and the sin-eater are aware of each other, Alex just follows the sin-eater around for about a half-hour while the sin-eater tries to convince the young priest to take over his position. Toward the end of the film, a rather uninteresting conspiracy is revealed, and Alex is forced into a decision about whether to become the next sin-eater or not, but by then it's really just a case of too little, too late.

I did my best to give this film a fair chance, and I will admit that there were some things that I liked about it (which is more than a lot of people seem willing to do). The gorgeous Italian locations are definitely a plus, and are nicely captured by Nicola Pecorini's graceful camerawork. I also give the film credit for trying to be a little more inventive than an average supernatural thriller. TV previews, showcasing all the cheesy CGI and shots of Heath Ledger holding out crosses while screaming at demons, give the impression that the film is going to be more of a horror movie than it actually is. In reality, this is barely a horror movie at all. It certainly isn't scary, and it barely even tries to be. The Order is more of a supernatural drama in the end, chronicling young Alex's relationship with the sin-eater, and while the movie is never truly successful at making this seem important, it is still a nobler aspiration than simply sending hunky Heath out to squirt demons with Super-Soakers full of holy water.

Still, despite the movie's good intentions, it is bogged down by many negative qualities. First and foremost, the attempt at an interesting dynamic between Father Bernier and the sin-eater is undermined by the fact that Bernier is little more than a stock character, and also by the fact that we've never really been given a reason to be interested in his conflict. Along with this, the film itself is rather patchy and confusing. The religious conspiracy element seems to come in as an afterthought, and I still don't understand what the "fate worse than death" that keeps being referenced is. Is it becoming a sin-eater? If so, I would assume it is "worse than death" because of the burden of carrying the sins of a thousand men, yet the sin-eater never really lets on that this is particularly painful for him. I won't go so far as to say that the "fate worse than death" is the film itself (that would be an extremist reaction and a cheap shot), but it is obvious after viewing, that this is definitely a flawed picture.

While the film may have its problems, the DVD itself isn't too bad of a package. The film is presented in both 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen and 1.33:1 fullscreen. Word is that the movie was shot full frame, and I am willing to believe this. Interesting, however, is that after a comparison between the widescreen and fullscreen versions it becomes obvious that the fullscreen does not necessarily provide more picture. The fullscreen image seems to gain information at the top of the frame while losing information from the sides. I suppose it's a toss-up as to which to watch, though I presume most everyone here will be choosing the letterboxed transfer. This was the one that I watched, and it seemed pretty good, with nice rendering of the beautiful Italian landscapes, etc.

As for extras, we are given several things. First, of course, is the obligatory trailer, which is full frame. Next comes a group of largely unnecessary deleted scenes that are only moderately interesting. We are given director's commentary with all of these scenes as well, which provides some occasionally interesting information as to the reasons behind their omission.

Along with the deleted scenes, we are given dailies from a scene where Bernier finds Mara, his girlfriend, with her wrists slit. This feature wasnât particularly interesting, as it basically consists of watching Mr. Ledger perform the same scene about ten damn times, when once in the movie was more than enough. I personally found the dailies more irritating than anything, as they just consist of Alex crawling all over Mara while making sounds that seem to be indicating severe gastrointestinal distress rather than intense emotional suffering.

Finally, we are given a feature-length commentary by the director, Brian Helgeland, which isn't particularly interesting. He discusses various influences for the project and spends a good deal of time pointing out behind the scenes info (e.g. who painted the pictures in the background, etc.) that's really not of much interest to anyone. I suppose the discussion of his influences could have been interesting, yet I find, as a general rule, commentaries where the creator is more enthusiastic about the film than the viewer tend to come off rather poorly. This one is no exception.

So, all in all, what of The Order? It's not as bad as you may hear in some circles, though it's not particularly good, either. To its credit, it does attempt to be a different, more meditative kind of horror flick, but in the end, I can't recommend it solely based on its aspirations. It might be worth a rental if you're particularly intrigued about observing the dynamic between Bernier and the sin-eater; however, I would probably advise most everyone else (aside from the Heath Ledger fans, of course) to look elsewhere for an evening's entertainment. In the end, it's true that you can do worse...but you can also do a lot better, too.