Out of the many features premiering this Fall movie season, few have peaked my curiosity quite like Justin Kurzel’s “The Order”. Based on the 1989 non-fiction book “The Silent Brotherhood” by Kevin Flynn and Gary Gerhardt, Kurzel’s period crime thriller sets out to tackle some potent subject matter. And with Jude Law, Nicholas Hoult, Tye Sheridan, and Jurnee Smollett starring, he has the cast to pull off what is one of the best thrillers of the year.

Kurzel has had a fascinating career. He emerged in 2015 with his powerful “Macbeth”. The very next year he hit a speed bump with “Assassin’s Creed”, a video game adaptation that has more strengths than it gets credit for. But he picked back up in 2019 with his gritty “True History of the Kelly Gang” and earned critical acclaim with 2021’s “Nitram”. Every film he has made is well worth watching and that remains true with “The Order”.

Set to a striking 1980s backdrop, Jude Law delivers one of the year’s best performances playing Terry Husk, an accomplished FBI agent who reopens the Bureau’s one-man office in the small rural town of Coeur D’Alene, Idaho. He’s come to investigate murmurings of rural neo-Nazi activity which the local Sheriff Loftlin (Philip Granger) is quick to downplay. But he finds an ally in Deputy Jamie Bowen (Sheridan), a clean-cut family man with his finger on the pulse of the area.

Terry is a compelling central character as seen through Law’s richly lived-in performance. He’s someone who has been around the block, building cases against the New York mafia and the Ku Klux Klan. But while he is driven by his work, it has also taken a heavy toll as evident by his lingering health problems and the allusions to his estranged wife and daughters. Sporting a thick mustache and a world-weary veneer, Terry is an honest and savvy agent who knows how criminals think.

Elsewhere we’re introduced to Bob Mathews played by a captivating Nicholas Hoult. He’s an attractive young man with an all-American smile and disarming sincerity that hides his more disturbing convictions. Bob is the leader of a neo-Nazi splinter group whose hate-fueled agenda is inspired by white supremacist William Luther Pierce’s 1978 novel “The Turner Diaries”.

In the film’s most unsettling scene, Bob has a secret roadside meeting with Rev. Richard Butler (a slyly chilling Victor Slezak), a religious zealot and the leader of Aryan Nations. Both share the same racist worldview but differ on how to bring it about. Butler is shrewd and meticulous, working under the firm belief that the political system is their best way forward. Bob is tired of talking and is ready to put words into action. He’s busy recruiting a militia; robbing banks and armored trucks to fund his revolution. But he’s drawing unwanted attention in the process.

Screenwriter Zach Baylin shapes their internal tension with a resonating urgency while defining their characters through their single-minded ambitions. As Butler sinks into the backdrop (a terrifying thought once you think about it), Bob’s fervor earns him a small but loyal group of followers who help him carry out a series of heists and soft-target bombings. But when his group (who calls themselves The Order, taken from Peirce’s book) murder Jewish talk-radio host Alan Berg (Marc Maron) in cold blood, it gives Terry and the FBI all they need to make Bob their #1 target.

As the “based on true events” story unfolds with a realistic tenor, the characters careen towards an inevitably violent conclusion. Along the way a handful of side characters provide the film with some welcomed context and depth. Smollett sheds some needed light on Ted playing his old friend and fellow agent, Joanne. In the same way, Bob is opened up more through his frustrated wife Debbie (Alison Oliver) and his pregnant side dish Zillah (Odessa Young). All three could use more screen time, but they have important roles and serve Kurzel’s laser-focused purpose well.

“In every revolution someone has to fire the first shot.” By the time those chilling words pass through Bob’s lips we fully understand the lengths he will go for his cause. And on the other side, Terry is just as committed to bringing Bob to justice. Both raise the stakes in what becomes a simmering cat-and-mouse thriller set within the stunning vistas of the Pacific Northwest. Law deserves an Oscar nomination for his performance while Hoult continues his tremendous 2024 run. As for Kurzel, he adds yet another compelling entry into his already strong filmography.

VERDICT – 4.5 STARS