Nicholas Hoult has been busy in 2024. With films like Juror #2, Nosferatu, and a voice role in The Garfield Movie, Hoult has proven himself to be an incredibly versatile actor during this year alone, with more massive projects on the way. With director Justin Kurzel’s The Order, Hoult displays a layer of darkness that I have yet to see in his projects, carrying the film from a forgettable crime drama to an enthralling experience. 

The Order is based on a true story about the FBI’s investigation of a group of robberies performed by a white supremacist group in an attempt to overthrow the government. The film follows Terry Husk, played by Jude Law, as an FBI agent determined to catch the criminals in order to reunite with his wife and daughters. Nicholas Hoult plays Bob Matthews, the leader of the white supremacist and criminal organization. 

Law and Hoult are easily the standout elements of The Order, driving the film’s emotion through their committed and nuanced performances. Law plays a derivative cop caricature, but his stoic nature and sadness he brings to the role made his character more enriching than the screenplay had to offer. Hoult is equally brilliant, conveying a truly dark character with some of the best eye-acting I’ve seen this year. While his character is evil, the believability he brings to the character makes it hard to look away. If there is any doubt about his upcoming portrayal as Lex Luthor, this performance should ease those worries. 

The film has many beautiful landscape shots and a fantastic use of wide angles. Not only did this bring the massive scale of The Order to life, but contributed heavily to the film’s tone. The tone is dour and muddy, matching the feelings of the characters and the setting. The characters are mostly hopeless and lack passion, warranting the empty space in the film’s cinematography. While most films try to fill the frame with energy, Kurzel strips away any liveliness to conduct a tense and uneasy experience for the audience, which I thoroughly enjoyed. 

The plot of The Order is fairly straightforward, but it attempts to parallel many of its themes to today’s climate. The idea of a government allowing pro-hate groups to form and promote violence is easily something that people can view in our current society. While I enjoyed the film’s attempts at relevancy, I feel they could have gone further with the messaging. Most of the depicted themes are surface-level at best, failing to portray anything outside of the norm. If it had found a more centralized and unique voice to its depiction of modern-day America, I feel that The Order would have a significantly higher emotional resonance.

The structure of the film needed some serious work. Although based on a true story and written by screenwriter Zach Baylin, the way that the film was told could easily be changed in order to avoid the common cliches of cop thrillers. The pacing is slow, which can be fine in certain situations, but with a film that repeats common plot beats, it felt unnecessary. Films like Rebel Ridge prove that a slow pace can be rewarding if it bodes well with the style, but with The Order, the derivative structure did not match the film’s style. 

The character work isn’t the strongest. Jude Law’s character has a semi-compelling arc, as he is torn between the family life and life of an FBI agent, but it’s nothing special. It is easy to figure out where his character ends up, which makes for a less rewarding experience compared to the ideas it is attempting to tackle. Bob Matthews is the far more interesting character, delving into how prejudice and bigotry is formed and how people with that mentality are unwilling to think otherwise. Hoult’s performance carries the character to higher heights, but the writing is strong for Matthews from start to finish. 

The Order is a well-made, well-intended crime thriller, but runs into too many cliches of the genre to be anything memorable. Law and Hoult do an amazing job of conveying the feelings and ambiguities of their characters, but the undercooked screenplay left more to be desired. There is nothing that is outright bad about the film, but it doesn’t leave you with a ton to chew on after the credits. A fun movie, but one that didn’t stick with me as much as it should have.

The Order is in theaters nationwide now.

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