Fantastic!

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Like Roman Polanski's "The Ninth Gate", Brian Helgeland's "The Sin Eater" (aka "The Order") is a tongue-in-cheek paranormal horror movie which blends comedy, Gothic decor and religious frights with a noir plot. Surprisingly, the film works best as a romance.The plot: Heath Ledger is a Vatican super-priest who, along with his buddy, a jovial exorcist played by Mark Addy, attempts to track down a "sin eater", an immortal "man" who absolves dying humans of their sins. Most of the film's "horror moments" don't work, thanks to unnecessary and unimaginative CGI, but Helgeland's comedic touch and matter-of-fact handling of the material – the priests battle demons without batting an eyelid, repelling devils like they've been doing this for years – helps offset this.The plot takes an interesting turn during the last act, the "sin eater" revealed to be not some super villain, but a tortured and somewhat upstanding guy. Ledger's repressed love for an ex mental patient played by Shannyn Sossamon leads to the film's best moments. The film features some good Italian architecture, and works well as a pop-corn noir with occult overtones.7.5/10 – Worth one viewing.

Perhaps if The Order came out in 2007 onward, I would've called this a rip-off of The Da Vinci Code. So, even though this is my first viewing, I have to reverse that statement.They were both "mystery, suspenseful, anti-catholic" thrillers, and neither of which I liked. I will say this: using the famous phrase, this is the lesser of both evils.The problems I had with this movie, I will admit, are my own problems. The first half of this movie confused the crap out of me, and I nearly lost interest multiple times, caring less on where these characters were headed or what fates they will face. But, since I bought it – thank GOD, it was a used $1.99 Blockbuster copy, and even then I think I overspent by $1.98 – I followed through to the end.The cloud of confusion lifted about the half-way mark and remarkably, it became enormously straightforward and definitely predictable. So, if you didn't like it up front, it only goes downhill when everything's revealed. As does most of the silly special effects.Typically, I give a synopsis in my reviews, but, again, since my head was spinning for half the feature, I'll give what I remember of the film. Priest/warrior/dark knight Bernier (Ledger – in one of his worst acting jobs I've seen from the late and brilliant actor) has his own justice league made up of recently released convict Sinclair (Sossamon) and Garrett (the usually funny, but barely here, Addy.) I'm guessing here (so, forgive my ignorance) they like to hunt bad spirits, or bad men, or just strange phenomenons surrounding the Faith. When Bernier's mentor gets killed, Bernier's gather up his ghostbusters to go find the murderer even though the Catholic faith might be compromised! There's also some evil high priest, I think that's what he was, whose identity is seen a mile away (even in the confusing first half.) Bernier's eventually left with some tough choices when he encounters the very bad man/"killer." Normally, I would think his "mind-game" type dialogue was good or better, but it all felt so mediocre at best.I would say skip this very boring, so-called "action" movie and even though The Da Vinci Code's not much better, it's still 3-4 steps ahead.

A priest of the Carolinian order is called to investigate the suspicious death of his leader. An artist who was institutionalized for attacking the investigating priest and whom he has exorcised previously is released and meets up with him. Demons inhabit the bodies of children and the order priest banishes them. A rogue priest, or sin-eater, is giving absolution to those about to die who have been excommunicated from the catholic church. The dark is rising. This movie is bathed in catholic religious occultism; it is very dark and secretive and seems more like an occult conspiracy theory movie with the church acting in the place of corrupt big government and the small investigative unit, consisting of the order priests and the artist, searching for the truth. Feels very X-files - if Mulder had been a priest and had a snails metabolism. Lots of strange dark occult figures and unexplained spiritual phenomena that doesn't seem to overly surprise anyone. Lots of personal angst in all the characters. The film does not transition smoothly, there is very little chemistry between characters, the acting is flat and the director fails to make us care about his movie.

"The Sin Eater" is a extraordinary movie which will come to first time viewers as a hit-piece. Most certainly to people who have been raised with a religion, in particular the Catholic. The Sin Eater actually filled out a couple of important blanks for me. The central theme inside the movie is "There is no Salvation outside the Catholic Church of Rome". It means that people, who have been excommunicated, need to find a alternative method to find a eternal resting place for their soul. Enter the Sin Eater, who, with his special powers, delivers salvation at demand for the right price. The Sin Eater is like an extra "God" on earth and as such cannot die and lives an eternal life. There's one little problem though. Although people do get salvation, their sins are _not_ undone, but are actually saved up inside the Sin Eater's body and soul. After having done his job for over 500 years, the number and severity of sins have become to much, even for a Sin Eater. A replacement is due. Enter the last of the Carolinger Priests, who is carefully recruited throughout the movie, in a CIA secret service styled method. The Carolinger Priests inside the Sin Eater are presented as the Jedi of the Catholic priesthood, who do exorcisms and extermination of evil demons like candy cakes between lunch and supper. The old Sin Eater turns out have made a covert deal with a rotten black satanic Cardinal who wants to become the new pope. It is this rotten deal with the Cardinal which becomes one Sin to far for the Sin Eater as his Sin absorbing powers are decreasing rapidly. After the Sin Eater is replaced by the Carolinger Priest, who is not into black occult Satan worship, things turns very bad for the Cardinal as well. Although the above scenario reads like a nut-case novel to people with atheistic or pagan beliefs, the movie addresses the fight between the Christian religion and paganism in a straightforward fashion. E.g. the Satanic Cardinal retrieves all of his knowledge by hanging people and listening to their last words while dying. The Sin Eater contains some interesting scenes. For instance, when the Carolingian Chief Dominic is coming home for the last time, two orphan children are waiting for him at the door. Dominic suddenly knows his last hour on earth is very near. Such signs have been reported before to actually happen in real life.