Having now screened Justin Kurzel’s “The Order,” a world premiere at the 2024 Venice International Film Festival, we are still perplexed how its subject matter has become an almost forgotten footnote in American history. Chances are you were unaware of a White Nationalist movement in the Northwest United States in the 1970s and ’80s. Or, that in 1983, a splinter group known as The Order, wreaked havoc robbing banks, printed counterfeit money, killed innocent civilians, and, eventually, assassinated a public figure. Perhaps the fact these events occurred so far from major media markets on the East Coast, San Francisco, or Los Angeles is why it will feel like a discovery to many. Shockingly, this isn’t subject matter taught in most public schools. But the depiction of these Nazis and their actions is perhaps the most compelling reason to consume this often impressively stylish thriller.
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Loosely based on Kevin Flynn and Gary Gerhardt‘s 1990 non-fiction novel “The Silent Brotherhood,” the movie finds veteran FBI Special Agent Tyler Husk (Jude Law) assigned to a remote and abandoned bureau office in Idaho. He barely steps into a local establishment before noticing a visual sign of white nationalism. After a mysterious disappearance and some unusually violent bank hold-ups, he recruits Jamie Bowen (Ty Sheridan), a local sheriff’s deputy who is familiar with the nearby Aryan Nation that may or may not be involved. In truth, The Order was a splinter group formed by Bob Matthews (Nicholas Hoult), whose radical goals were too much for even the notorious Aryan Nation leader Richard Butler (Victor Slezak). Matthews’ organization is growing, and his wife, Debbie (Alison Oliver), is starting to realize her husband is not the man she thought he was.
As Husk, Bowen, and a regional FBI colleague Joanne Carney (Jurnee Smollett), slowly close in, Zach Baylin‘s screenplay gives ample time to showcase just how dangerously charismatic and naive Matthews was with his goal of overthrowing the U.S. government. History also bestows some harrowing burglaries for Durkin and cinematographer Adam Arkapaw to depict. The genuine tension from these moments, in an era where it seems few were paying attention, thankfully overshadow Baylin’s instincts to give too much backstory to Matthews’ character. In particular, a storyline with Odessa Young as Matthews’ pregnant mistress that feels superfluous. But the true events, including a shocking killing in Denver, Colorado, and an almost unfathomable armored car robbery in California are undeniably riveting.
The characters portrayed by Law and Sheridan are fictional, but you’d never know it. Law delivers the best American accent of his career (that’s a compliment) and is able to ground Husk despite the character’s heroic tendencies often making matters worse. Law also has great chemistry with Sheridan, who perfectly avoids cliché as the idealistic family man trying to do the right thing. Hoult is also quite good, projecting the charisma of a cult leader without descending to over-the-top exuberance. He projects an aura of quiet calm, making it easier to believe just how successful Matthews was in recruiting new members to his organization — especially one with lofty goals that most people would immediately question.
Standing in for the American Northwest, Kurzel uses the mostly Alberta, Canada landscape to spectacular effect making the stark vistas a character in their own right. It’s almost the filmmaker’s instrument to explain how this story was somehow lost in this vast wilderness. And his depiction of the action scenes is as close to a filmmaking tour de force as you can get. Even for those who know the fate of The Order and its members, Kurzel and editor Nick Fenton will keep you riveted. Until, alarmingly, they don’t.
Despite a subject matter that feels shockingly contemporary, a plethora of fine performances, and true-life events that are a gift to any screenwriter, the movie ends, for lack of a better word, with a complete thud. And that’s not hyperbole. In all fairness, we cannot remember the last time we screened a movie that closed with such a dramatic whimper. There is nothing to spoil. Nothing is shocking. It just comes to a disjointed conclusion. And completely takes out the emotional sails of everything that preceded it. So much so that you leave the theater wondering, “How on earth did that happen?” We can’t wait for an answer. [C+]
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