Review: The Order (Justin Kurzel)

“A decidedly middle-of-the-road crime drama without much momentum and slightly too much restraint to be entirely effective.”

There was a time when Justin Kurzel seemed primed to be one of the most exciting voices in contemporary cinema – he started his directorial career with a fascinating recounting of the Snowtown Murders, one of the most shocking moments in Australian history, then followed that up with an exceptional adaptation of Macbeth, which he managed to craft without it coming across as contrived. However, it seems as if Kurzel has grown more focused on the kinds of films that launched his career, as his three most recent directorial outings are all gritty, unsettling crime dramas based on true events and focusing on some of the most notorious killers of their respective eras. His most recent film is The Order, which is based on the FBI investigation that aimed to take down Bob Mathews. Texas born but eventually settling in Washington State, Mathews blurred the lines between domestic terrorist and radical cult leader. His reign of violence in the early 1980s was not only responsible for several deaths, but also contributed to the atmosphere of paranoia that lingered throughout the decade. Exactly what we would expect from Kurzel, in terms of both style and substance, The Order is a solid film, albeit one that feels too familiar. Not necessarily in terms of the story, but rather the execution, which aligns it with many similarly themed films, including those made by the director in the past. Like those films, The Order seems to constantly circle the same territory we’ve encountered on countless occasions without providing any new commentary or insights on the central themes.

The Order is indeed quite similar to Kurzel’s previous projects insofar as it is a relatively straightforward dramatization of the events, adhering closely to the actual historical context and the real-life individuals who played a part. For those who enjoy hard-hitting, direct examinations of historical events over the polished, often sensationalized alternative we see with more mainstream productions, this film is a good fit. However, this is also the area in which it feels somewhat limited since we find that the majority of true-crime dramas follow this same formula, lacking any discernible qualities of their own, and instead blurring into a homogenous lot that makes picking apart the different stories quite difficult. The Order does not have many standout qualities – there are a couple of strong sequences, such as the final confrontation between the FBI agents and Mathews; here the film actually manages to be tense and engrossing, but it comes after nearly two hours of slow-paced meandering through the dual perspectives that drive the story. At its core, however, the film is quite conventional. Understandably, an unfurnished, raw approach to real events does seem appropriate, especially since an alternative version of this film would likely veer towards the excessively melodramatic, but the overall lack of focus on delivering a more compelling glimpse into the criminal mind (as it seems to promise at the outset) does ultimately prevent the film from being all that memorable.

One aspect of The Order that is appealing, even if only in theory, is the casting of the principal actors, since Kurzel is clearly going against the grain in terms of the performers chosen to play these parts. Jude Law continues his steady march towards becoming one of our finest character actors, playing the scruffy FBI agent who uses slightly unorthodox methods to lead his team (who are generally cynical toward his approach) to the epicenter of Mathews’ organization, and ultimately heads the mission that brings the entire group down. His character seems to be a composite of various agents and detectives assigned to the case, compressed into a single figure that acts as our protagonist, which is one of the few artistic liberties taken in this film. On the other side of the moral divide is Mathews, who is portrayed by Nicholas Hoult, similarly cast against type as the mysterious, volatile domestic terrorist who is willing to sacrifice everything to prove his point, believing that his legacy will last longer than whatever time he has left, which makes him quite an unconventional antagonist. One of the most frustrating elements of The Order is that both leads are very good (as well as some of the supporting cast – Marc Maron in particular proves to be quite effective as the de facto narrator until his tragic demise in one of the other standout moments in the film), but the film doesn’t utilize them properly, allowing the actors to gradually fade into the background. Obviously the film is dealing with a notorious figure and any attempts to give him more nuances could be mistaken for compassion or an attempt to humanize or justify his actions – nonetheless, more attention to detail could have massively elevated this film to meet its intentions.

While the material is clearly of interest to Kurzel, and he certainly is competent enough as a director to make the material compelling without sensationalizing its more unsettling elements, The Order is a relatively unconvincing effort that doesn’t contribute anything new to the genre, and instead feels overly burdened by the tropes associated with this kind of brooding, cynical crime thriller that focuses more on authenticity than spectacle. This does prevent it from showing the harrowing events in anything other than the most brutal and honest of ways, but also means that it becomes quite didactic after a while. Kurzel aims to take the concept of the traditional crime procedural and rework it into an atmospheric, intense drama, but in the process seems to neglect certain vital elements – the characterization is barely present (despite a wholehearted commitment from the actors), the tone never feels all that consistent and the overall experience is not only dour, which is to be expected based on the subject matter, but outwardly too prosaic for its own good. A crime drama about the methods more than the execution can be compelling when done right, which is unfortunately not the case for The Order, a decidedly middle-of-the-road crime drama without much momentum and slightly too much restraint to be entirely effective.