Review of Sin Eater, The

Introduction

Who do you call when you`ve offended God? The Sin Eater, that`s who. A Sin Eater is someone who performs outside of the church authority in taking on someone`s sins, for a price. This enables the sinner to die with grace and go to Heaven. In return the Sin Eater would feel the burden of the sins he took on. The Sin Eater here has a name, William Eden (Benno Fuhrmann), and takes on the sin of an excommunicated priest, Father Dominic. When the Carolingian Father, Alex Bernier (Heath Ledger), learns of his mentor`s death, he`s sent to Rome to investigate. He calls on his friend and globetrotting exorcist priest Father Thomas Garrett (Mark Addy) to help. Little does he know what he`s in for.

I find films that play on religious significance intriguing, if only to see what the filmmaker wants to portray. Be it a dig at religious dogma or a personal take on a peculiar little known occurrence, it`s nonetheless interesting to see what they`ll make of it in terms of drama. Sometimes these occurrences become the basis for a film plot and building on it takes skill. This film lacks plot and skill.

Video

Presented with a 1.85:1 widescreen enhanced video transfer, The Sin Eater looks good, if sometimes muted, throughout. Visible grain is kept to a minimum, colours appear balanced and detail looks fine. Blacks are impressively black too with no sign of print damage or poor compression.

Audio

You have a choice of either Dolby Digital or DTS 5.1 soundtracks and both sound the same. It`s a crisp, dynamic track with some nice surround effects of the wind, storm and echoes as well as ambient music. Dialogue is clear from the centre.

Features

Easy to navigate menus with just a couple of extras. The DVD plays trailers before the menu appears.

• Director`s Commentary (subtitled) - Director Helgeland imparts some interesting info about the film but also seems to state the obvious. I could do without it though as this track is boring to listen to.

• Deleted Scenes (subtitled) (with subtitled and optional commentary) - 7 deleted scenes and thankfully attached to a `play all` button. The scenes here add very little to the final film except to fill in some holes and add to the film`s exposition. Overall these are dull and were deleted for a reason.

Conclusion

I`ve followed a few of writer/director Brian Helgeland`s films for a little while. First writing Conspiracy Theory, co-writing L.A. Confidential with Curtis Hanson, then writing/directing Payback, A Knight`s Tale, and now this, The Sin Eater. Incidentally, he also wrote the adaptation for The Postman, Blood Work and Mystic River amongst others. Altogether this is quite a mixed creative bag. The Sin Eater, also known as The Order in the U.S., didn`t get a UK theatrical release and instead went straight to video. It`s not surprising given that the film is a boring mess.

Is this a drama or horror film? It`s difficult to say as I was uninterested in all of it. It`s uninteresting for a number of reasons. First, the story doesn`t have any real drama to it, nothing dramatic or compelling. There`s a lot that doesn`t make sense, and it`s not for the want of trying or keeping an open mind. There`s little or no conflict. The priest characters bumble along with no real idea of what they`re doing which becomes repetitive and I never once suspended my disbelief. The Sin Eater himself is nothing special, or if he truly is powerful, we don`t get that impression. The film never raises its game to challenge or stimulate and just bores the pants off me.

The Church, with all its secrets and power, has the potential to frighten, but the film doesn`t do anything at all to instil the `fear of God` in you. Stigmata, as a film, played this element far better with a frightening egoist in Jonathan Pryce.

The Sin Eater re-unites three of the cast, Heath Ledger, Mark Addy and Shannyn Sossamon, from one of Helgeland`s previous films, A Knight`s Tale. To me, Ledger is miscast. He plays the rebel priest Father Alex Bernier and plays investigator in tracking down the sin eater. However he seems far too young to do this and doesn`t appear convincing in the role. His love interest in Mara (Shannyn Sossamon) doesn`t really do much in the film and I was left wondering why she was brought along to Rome. Another nail, which adds to the films incredulity. There are little things like this throughout including the translation of the same Aramaic text, "Blood in, blood out", repeated a few times which sounds like something for a dumb audience.

If you really have to see this film, don`t say I didn`t warn you. It`s dull and pointless.