The Order: A Review

THE ORDER

The scourge of white supremacists remains lurking in the shadows, mercifully not dominant but still a menace. The Order, based on true events, chronicles the lengths some would go to make their genocidal dreams into reality. While respectable and with some good performances, I found a curious remoteness to The Order that robbed it of being a more gripping rendition of events.

The charismatic and youthful Bob Mathews (Nichoal Hoult) is the leader of The Order, a breakaway group from the white supremacists Church of Jesus Christ-Christian and its leader Richard Butler (Victor Slezak). While both advocate the overthrow of the government, Mathews is impatient and wants to take action. He takes inspiration from The Turner Diaries, a novel where a group of white supremacists commit various crimes to bring about their white utopia. Among those acts are bank robberies and even murder of friend and foe culminating in the assassination of local Jewish radio host Alan Berg (Marc Maron). 

Into this comes world weary FBI Agent Terry Husk (Jude Law). He has come to sleepy Idaho as a kind of informal semi-retirement after years of stressful undercover work investigating the Mafia. Now he finds himself drawn to investigate this group of bank robbers who pose a greater danger than mere theft. Aided by local Deputy Jamie Bowen (Tye Sheridan), who is acquainted with some of the supremacists, the Order's crimes escalate. Along with fellow FBI Agent Joanne Carney (Jurnee Smollett), they now work to bring the Order down. Lives will be lost and upended before Matthews is brought down in a fiery finish.

The Order has an interesting story to tell. It is told efficiently, but perhaps that is why I was not as impressed with the film as I could have been. Despite the horrors of the Order and their odious worldview, the film itself felt a bit remote, removed, almost clinical. I did not sense great passion from any of the characters. Instead, I could not shake the idea that everyone behind The Order, while well-intentioned, was slightly removed from things. 

A case in point is when, through a mix of accident and intent, Mathews and Husk meet and interact. I figure that this would be a great moment to build up tension or a sense of danger for Husk, unaware that the fellow hunter was the one he was hunting. However, it felt a bit clinical, as if both Hoult and Law were not fully committed. The same can be said for director Justin Kurzel, who was efficient but not passionate. I did not feel any sense of tension or suspense when Mathews and Husk interact. 

I did not feel that way when Mathews interrupts Butler's speech. The Order wants us to believe that Mathews, this young Turk, has now rallied Butler's group against him to adopt full-on revolution versus mere conversation. It could have been tense or suspenseful, building on the fear of Mathews' growing power. Instead, like in almost all of The Order, it felt dispassionate and slightly remote. 

That is also the case when Mathews meets new recruit Tony Torres (Matias Lucas). Despite the surname, Torres insists that he is not Mexican but of European Spaniard descent. This moment, I think, is trying to build tension as to whether or not Mathews will include this light-skinned potentially non-Aryan into the fold (he does). However, it was not as gripping as it could have been. Later, when Husk confronts Torres in jail about his connection to the Order and its crimes, he tells him what could happen if his associates discover that he is in fact Mexican. More often than not, The Order fails to build up tension or menace, and having Husk break out into a nosebleed in this scene might come across as unintentionally comical. 

That is not to say that there weren't moments of shock and horror. Alan Berg's assassination is creatively filmed, taking things from his point-of-view. It comes almost out of nowhere, and even if you know of Berg's murder prior to seeing the film, this scene still shocks with its presentation. Later on, someone else is gunned down in a well-filmed and acted moment. It elicits both shock and deep sympathy. Had The Order had more moments like those, it would have elevated the film more. 

The Order is respectively acted. Hoult is fine as Mathews, who is driven by a sense of arrogance and superiority of all kinds. It takes a particular kind of person to flaunt his pregnant mistress to all his friends and associates. Law was appropriately morose as the troubled FBI agent, missing his children and wondering if people would have his back. The performances were fine, but again a bit remote. I think only Sheridan, while still not as passionate one way or another, was the best performance in The Order. His Deputy Bowen was no hick, but he also was at times afraid and aware that he was over his head. As the film went on, I saw his growing rage at what he saw as the FBI's hesitancy in bringing this group of racist criminals down. Smollett, while showing some promise, was more like Hoult and Law, a bit aloof from things. 

The Order is a good film that I think could have been great. That perhaps is why I ended up not as enthusiastic as others have been. I found it efficient but dispassionate, which is a lost opportunity in my view. 

DECISION: C+