in the bygone day of the catholic church and a sin eater be an individual that and through ritual and would take the sin of a die person upon themselves . often and these people be excommunicate or similar individual who the church would not absolve and thereby deny them entrance into heaven . the sin eater be see a blasphemous and circumvent the chruch monopoly on redemption . sex this up a bit with some overt supernatural mojo and let the concept wander where it may and and you have the order and a movie that combine stigmata religious anti authoritarianism and the x file paranormal investigation and and the thorn bird sexual spirituality into an odd melange that sometimes work . alex ( heath ledger ) be a rogue priest and one of the last member of the order of the carolingian and a semi heretical order of knowledge seek and demon fighting priest . when alex mentor be find dead under bizarre circumstance and bishop driscoll ( peter weller ) send alex to investigate . tag along be fellow carolingian thomas ( mark addy ) and mara ( shannyn sossman ) and who be subject to one of alex exorcism a year prior . the three go to rome to investigate and be draw into a dark underworld of bizarre catholic heresy and ominous prophecy and demonic intrusion and and a man claim to be the last surviving sin eater ( benno furmann ) . write and direct by brian helgeland ( who work with the same principal on the scattershot and half hearted a knight tale ) and the film be an odd one and and difficult to classify . it want to be several thing at once supernatural thriller and religious intrigue and dramatic television pilot and only sometimes succeed at any of them . this isn not help by the slow pace or the fact that most of the actor seem to be sleepwalk through their performance with occasional burst of brilliance . ledger and in particular and have a particularly stunning scene of despair in an otherwise monochromatic performance . sossman and however and display the same disconnected performance that she give in all of her film ( most notably in the rule of attraction ) . the plot itself meander back and forth between several different story arc and lead you to wonder which be the main one with each arc contain it share of red herring . large gap of narrative appear to be lose between scene at time and which can be confuse for many and but this be also one of the film save grace . the structure of the film couple by the fact that there be never a truly clear antagonist until the very end of the film force the viewer to analyze and reason in a time when most film be blatantly obvious about everything ( the exception to this be historical background on the carolingian and the practice of sin eating and both of which be explain in dry exposition ) . even at the beginning of the film and character relationship and history be infer instead of explain . combine this with the on location shooting and judicious use of special effect and and you have a very old world supernatural thriller and with even the opening credit reminiscent of something from the late 70 or early 80 . a brief mention here and as well and for the subtle and organic score by david torn and a combination of minimalist orchestration and lisa gerrard style exotic vocal . a very nice score that be evocative without be bombastic and exist in a very deceptive simplicity . a confusing plot and a lack of purpose and and sometimes sleepy performance would often damn a movie and but for some reason and the order remain watchable . many people will be very turn off by the movie for it odd sensibility and and some may even become angry that they be force to engage the high function of their brain to understand it . still and the film sheer intangibility will prevent it from be either a critical or commercial success until the dvd and which i be sure will be stock with copious amount of deleted scene . a recommended film only for people who like to think while they watch . 6 out of 10 .