Le purificateur

I'm not sure what to make of this film. It was written, directed, and produced by Brian Helgeland, who also wrote the Mel Gibson film "Conspiracy Theory" and wrote and directed "A Knight's Tale", a take-off on Chaucer's Cantebury Tales. Unlike both of those films, which I quite liked, there is no focus as to what this film is supposed to mean.

Heath Ledger plays Fr. Alex, a young priest whose mentor, the former head of a religious order, appears to have committed suicide. Ledger is skeptical, and accompanied by friend and fellow priest Thomas (Mark Addy) and a young woman whom he had exorcised the previous year (Shannyn Sossamon), he goes to Rome to investigate.

He finds that his mentor had employed the services of a "sin-eater", a person who takes on the sins of those about to die who have been excommunicated (apparently unjustly?) by the Roman Catholic Church.

Once he finds the sin-eater, the rest of the film deals with Ledger's motivations for being a priest, his conflict between his vows and his love for the young woman, and the sin-eater's offer to make Fr. Alex his successor, as well as interference run in these matters by demons and pagans...

While this description suggests a compelling drama of religious conflict, the execution is schematic, murky, half-witted...characterization is imcomplete and inadequately subtle, motivations remain unclear, tension is diffused- in short, the project was not well-thought out.

Some things to keep in mind when watching-

1. Real priests do not chase demons (Helgeland has been watching too much Buffy!) nor do competent priests permit themselves to be taunted by demons so that the priest feels the need to challenge them...

2. Fr. Thomas encounters Fr. Alex in the graveyard, where he has just buried his mentor. Sensing something he asks Fr. Alex what has happened, and Fr. Alex (who had just been attacked by demons) responds "demon spawn in the form of children- nothing I couldn't handle". That disposition is so wrong! Relating the casting out of demons to your own ability would only invite the demons to attack you more fiercely! We defeat Satan through humility. Jesus said, "Don't be glad because the evil spirits obey you; rather be glad because your names are written in heaven." (Luke 10:20, Today's English Version)

3. "Knowledge is opposed to faith" one character says. This is the most annoying line in the film. What kind of knowledge is he referring to? Knowledge of sin? Well, we may say that knowledge of sin obscures faith but is directly opposed to love. Knowledge of the occult? Beyond certain limits, knowledge of the occult is dangerous and unnecessary, and thus opposed to faith. But what about scientific knowledge, as in the laws of history or physics? Or knowledge of the faith itself? Does the Scripture not say "My people perish for lack of knowledge?" (Hosea 4:6)

4. In one instance, Fr. Thomas denounces a pagan as a "blasphemer"; yet, in another, earlier scene, he practically goads Fr. Alex into breaking his vows. Why does he act honorably in one scene and not in the other?

5. If the relationship between the young woman and Fr. Alex did not deserve to be developed more than what is here, it deserved to be excised from the film as a needless distraction from the story arc. When Fr. Alex breaks his vows, what could have been a meaningful scene between the two, is instead a PG-13 lovemaking montage with no dialogue at all!

Is the director being anti-Catholic, anti-Christian, or anti-God? It seems to me none of these things, but rather he objects to his perception of the authority of the Roman Catholic Church. I do not think he realizes there is a conflict between the genuine Catholic dogma of sin and redemption and the false one portrayed here, a false understanding no doubt arising from exposure to distorted and legalistic expressions of the Roman Catholic faith.

To unspiritual people, this will seem a silly, cheesy film. But I doubt that Helgeland just decided to arbitrarily throw together supernatural elements in order to make a thriller. He seems to be aware that these elements do exists, but he is confused about their nature.

This is not a film that should be seen without someone wise and mature in the Catholic faith.

In New York, Alex Bernier (Ledger) is a young priest and one of the three last members of an arcane order called Carolingians. When the old leader of the order dies, Alex goes to Rome with his friend Mara Sinclair (Shannyn Sossamon), a troubled painter who tried suicide in the past and for whom Alex is in love with. Thomas Garret (Mark Addy), the other member of the Carolingians, meets them in Rome. Alex notes that the body of the old priest bears two marks on the chest and a further investigation reveals that they are the symbol of the 'Sin Eater', a renegade priest called William Eden (Benno Fürmann) who exchanges absolution per money. Lots of mystery surrounds Alex, Mara and Thomas while they stay in Rome. This movie has a good premise, cast, director, photography, budget, locations, but something is missing or does not work well, and in the end the plot is very confused and quite boring. A waste of a good idea. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): 'Devorador de Pecado' ('Sin Eater')

The head of the Carolingian order is killed and one of the last members is called to investigate the death. The Carolingians fight demons, apparitions and perform exorcisms. Can he stop a murderer who is not human?

Apparently all that is required to banish the most powerful denizens of hell is a small wooden Crucifix and the Chant'.I order you back to Hell!' Well I order you to save your ten dollars. Ledger, Sossamon and even Addy are not the problem in this film. The borderline special effects are also not the problem in this film. The problem is this film's trailer (the preview for the film) that promises a horror thriller with a mysterious supernatural killer, involving rogue priests. The problem is the trailer writes checks that the plot can't cash. Now I know we have enough rogue priests in our regular everyday life, but these rogue priests have cool black crucifix tattooed on their legs. The entire cast which, seems to be little more than a Knight's Tale reunion all turn in great performances. The first Forty-five minutes make me think of Stigmata with a taste of The Exorcist. After that it becomes boring, predictable and criminally unimaginative. Not only is it not scary or suspenseful after that, but it wastes what was shapping up to be a fine plot. Originally scheduled to release Jan 17, 2002 it was postponed to redo the special effects, maybe the plot should have received a rework as well.

Though not big box office fare, the special effects weren't completely horrible. The sets were actually very nice and I liked St. Peters in particular. Maybe a Hollywood clone would do the justice that this movie couldn't, or even a direct to video movie about the Carolingians in which we pretend the first movie didn't even exist.

The Order is a fairly shadowy and brooding film. Heath Ledger stars as Alex, a tormented young Carolignian priest in search of The SinEater. (Which personally I feel should have been the title, instead of the current)

A very pale and thin Heath Ledger takes on the role of the conflicted in this film that pushes boundaries and will no doubt cause eyebrows to raise among several including the Catholic Church. (A few moviegoers left during the film when I viewed) The film is dark and uses shadows to set tones and create suspense. There are several storylines introduced and covered that do tie together eventually. The subject is an interesting one and this is certainly not the last movie to question the role of the Church. I feel Heath Ledger was brave in choosing to do this film and hopefully he will continue onward with his career. It was good to not see him in a period piece, as he has been doing of late.

Shannyn Sossamon adds to the film as the troubled Mara. And while some of the movie involving her becomes predictable the relationship between Alex and Mara does progress the movie in a certain direction. Certain lines delivered during the film that were perhaps written to create dramatic moments falter. The movie is on the cusp of potential. 8 out of 10 for shock value....a film that may not be very popular but worth seeing if you are a fan of movies of all types.

Although I really, really liked this movie, I must admit it's not for everyone, and here's why. The Order encompasses one or two intriguing ideas gone a bit awry.

A priest (played by Heath Ledger) is called upon to investigate the apparent suicide of his mentor, and uncovers the mystery of an ancient being, the Sin Eater, who is able to absolve the sins of those (unrepentant sinners, excommunicated persons, suicides) a normal Catholic priest would be unable to forgive due to church dogma. The knowledge of this creature forces the priest to face his own conflicted feelings about the priesthood. Before he has even begun to sort out his confusion, the larger plot begins to unravel and he finds that he has been at the center of it for longer than he had ever realized.

Well, it would have been excellent if left at that and fleshed out for the 100-minute duration, but it was not to be. The best bits of turmoil and conflict, of passion and temptation and surrender, were skimmed through so quickly it seemed as if someone thought they were the annoying-but-necessary bits when they should have been the real meat of the film. The rest was a clogged up mess of random (and inexplicable) demon children, a power-hungry cardinal, and worst of all: a love interest who had absolutely no chemistry with the main character, an accent that was completely out of place, a confusingly pointless back story, and who seemed incongruous with the setting and plot. Sadly, there were very few shots of the film's locations, only one wide shot of Rome in fact, which could have been used to set the tone much more effectively than all those shadows and candlelight.

That all said, there were many redeeming features. The soundtrack was hit-and-miss, but more hit than miss and at least it was never distracting. The duo of Ledger and Mark Addy was charming and the chemistry between Ledger's character and "William Eden" (played by Benno Fürmann) was sizzling. That adversarial relationship should have been the focus of the film rather than a sort of easter egg hunt during bits of the second half, but it was more than enough for me to consider this movie an hour and a half well spent.