Alex is what the Catholic Church considers one of its rogue priests. He is part of an order that has been pretty much disowned by the hierarchy of the church as many of its views are considered outdated and are not looked at with any belief. See Alex has been trained to defeat ghosts, demons and even to practice such things as exorcisms. So when Alex discovers that the head of his order and almost a father to the boy when he was orphaned travels to Rome to investigate the strange death of his mentor. But before he leaves his is confronted with a young artist Mara that Alex once had feelings for going against all the rules of his priesthood. Mara refuses to let Alex go alone because she fears for his safety and his soul. So the young priest, the troubled artist with whom he shares a turbulent past, and his closest friend and colleague Thomas discover the mysterious death may be the work of the Sin Eater, an ancient figure who plays God on earth by absolving the unforgivable of their sins outside the Church, allowing great evil to go unpunished. So now it will be up to these two priests to hunt down this Sin Eater and destroy him before he can prey on anybody again, but it will not be as easy as it seems because Alex appears to share ties with the Sin Eater that go all the way back to his childhood and may change him forever.

Some movies are very hard to analyze and even harder to understand as you watch them, this movie is one of them. Throughout the entire movie I tried to find direction and purpose for the movie, tried to figure out where it was going and what it was trying to accomplish but I came to the conclusion the movie has no purpose and very few will see where the movie is heading. This is not a bad thing but it can be a very confusing thing especially when the movie is like this dark, sinister and full of obscure references. This is not to say the movie did not have plot nor good character development, because it did. In fact it had great character development and you could complexly understand Heath Ledger’s character and his emotional development though the movie. Also the plot while sinister and twisted was still very good and did leave you compelled to try and find the purpose of the movie. That’s the problem isn’t it not tell the very last scene do you find the purpose and that can leave some displeased with the movie. The movie is a twisted, weird sort of journey that sometimes makes you question the movie itself. Also there is going to probably be a lot of religious fanatics who are up in arms over this films, as it does not cast an appealing light on the Catholic Church instead making them seem like they are hiding things and condone things that they preach against. This is the type of movie I feel compelled to see at least once and am not angry I went to see it but would I ever see it again, probably not.
2.5 stars out of 5