On the heels of its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on August 31, Australian director Justin Kurzel'S The Order arrived at the Toronto International Film Festival this week. And, as it did across the ocean, the film — which King Richard Oscar nominee Zach Baylin adapted from Kevin Flynn AND by Gary Gerhardtthe 1989 book The Silent Brotherhoodabout the FBI's hunt for a domestic terrorist group in the 1980s, has been widely welcomed by critics and audiences. As for awards season prospects, it has one in particular: Leading Actor Judas Law.
The British actor is no longer the handsome guy you might remember from his Oscar-nominated roles decades ago, after all. Antonio Minghella'S The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) and Cold Mountain (2003). Now 51, he has had many personal and professional ups and downs; it seems so; and, apparently, he has come out of it a better actor. We got a taste of that a year ago when he came to Cannes with Burning brandin which he played an unforgettable Henry VIII. And now TIFF audiences are seeing him in two films at the festival, Ron Howard'S Edenwhich is still seeking distribution in the United States, and The Orderwhich Vertical will put on sale in a limited edition on December 6th.
In The OrderThe right plays Terry Peelan aging FBI agent who is haunted by past cases – think of Gene Hackman In The French Connection, The conversation AND Mississippi on fire —and moves to Idaho in search of a slower pace of life. Once there, however, he is sucked back into the deep end after hearing about a series of crimes in the Pacific Northwest that he realizes all lead back to an offshoot of the white supremacist neo-Nazi Aryan Nations. The group, called The Order, is led by a charismatic young racist named Bob Matthews (played very effectively by Nicholas Hoult), with whom Husk embarks on a cat-and-mouse chase that leaves much brutality and blood in its wake.
Though set in 1983, the film feels urgently relevant today. Indeed, the same source material that inspired Mathews and The Order — that is, white nationalist William Luther Piercethe 1978 book Turner's Diaries —helped radicalize the Americans who attacked a federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995; who participated in the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021; and who are planning more actions today.
The film is obviously very dark and disturbing, at a time when the real world is too, which might make it a tough sell at the box office. But if awards voters can be mobilized to see it (maybe Vertical should market it as a feature-length version of True Detectivewhich in a way is), I think they will be very impressed by Law.