The Last Templar stars Mira Sorvino as Tess Chaykin, a plucky archeologist following in her father's footsteps. When priceless Vatican artifacts, including the Cross of Constantine which her father recovered, are stolen from a museum by a band of horsemen dressed as Templar Knights, Tess grabs a Pope's golden crook and goes after the bandits by stealing a cop's horse. Ok, this pretty much sets the tone for the entire experience - lots of unlikely and unbelievable stunts done by a woman with a big attitude and some gold Manolo Blahniks.
The grand theft and Tess's subsequent capture of one of the thieves sets off a chain of events that eventually threatens to shake the foundations of Christianity. It seems one of the items stolen was an ancient Templar decoder which is being used to decipher a document thought to be the map to the famed Templar treasure. At the crux of this mystery are Tess, FBI agent and eventual love interest Sean Daley (Scott Foley), Tess's father's old friend and Templar expert Bill Vance (Kenneth Welsh), and the local head of the Catholic Church, Monsignor de Angelis (Victor Garber). Their treks take them from New York to Turkey and the viewers go along for the ride, with a number of stops in ancient Jerusalem and Turkey as well, as we revisit the last days of the Templar Knights through flashbacks.
While I enjoyed the film, I did find that it dragged on a good bit, especially during the last 30 minutes. It went from an okay adventure film to a musing and somewhat religious film towards the end, which was a strange turn. I am being somewhat vague about the specifics of what happens in the story, because there are some slight twists and I don't want to ruin it for anyone who wants to see the movie. But if you do choose to watch the film, do be aware that there will be plenty of, "Uhhhhh, sure" moments in there. It is a made for TV movie and while they did go on location and put a lot into it, it's still a made for TV flick.
While the acting is solid most of the time, the most engaging of which being Tess's daughter, Kim (Rebecca Windheim), and includes actors like Omar Sharif (who plays a Turkish local who helps Tess find her faith), the movie just seemed really long and unbelievable. There was nice chemistry between Sorvino and Foley, who is absolutely adorable, but it just isn't must-see TV, if you know what I mean. Special features include a 20 minute making-of featurette, but there was actually footage of Sorvino that was repeated twice in those 20 minutes, so that was a downer. If you are a fan of the book, I can't speak to whether the movie sticks to the book since I haven't read it, but I'd recommend a rental over a purchase, since it's doubtful you'll get multiple viewings out of it.
