HERETIC - Movie Review

Hey everybody. Today I'm going to be reviewing Heretic. This was directed by Scott Beck and Brian Woods. This seems to be a showcase, I think, for Hugh Grant in the third act of his legendary career. It is a way to repackage a familiar persona that he's charmed audiences with in romantic comedies for for ages. The stuttering, boyish, quick-witted personality that is very English in nature and it seems he could never really rid himself of that. But it's always been quite clear to me that Hugh Grant has a cynicism and a depth of curiosity to him. And I always thought it would be interesting to see if he could tap more into that in his acting. And he gets the chance, obviously, with Heretic. This is another arthouse horror A24 vehicle. It embodies the hereditary aesthetic, kind of that postmodern architectural symbolism as a way to navigate maybe deeper questions in the film. That's just what's in fashion these days. It's very, you know, the shining. But as I said, I was intrigued by this movie not only because of Hugh Grant, but I also thought the premise was really great. You have these two Mormon young women, I think they're maybe 19 years old, 20, and they are going door to door to spread their faith, their religion, obviously. They end up knocking on the door of Hugh Grant's house, and in this case he's playing a character named Mr. Reed. And of course the ladies are won over by his kindness, his awkwardness. But we learn very quickly that Mr. Reed is not at all who he seems to be on the surface. And his house is something of a trap that he has set up. It's like a way that he lures in young innocent people who are impressionable, and he uses them kind of in an experiment so that he can test their faith, maybe test the strength of their beliefs. There is something to that angle also that is, it's just really funny. It felt like, you know, like a psychotic college professor that maybe, maybe he got fired in like the early 90s or something. And so it's like he waits alone like a hermit in his house, just waiting for kids to come by. So it's like he can finish his lectures. He can have his Norma Desmond moment on the stage. It's just as funny. This movie does feel, yes, like a, like a Hugh Grant Ted Talk. It's a way to kind of showcase his acting prowess, his intellect, his, his mastery of, of the spoken word. I think for me, I was never fully bored by the film, but I was never on edge at the same time. It wasn't gripping in the way that I wanted it to be. I think this movie is concerned with conceptualization, aesthetic, and maybe genre conventions, and how they can subvert them in a way that is, yes, very postmodern in style. But they do so at the expense of, I think, a compelling thesis where the tension can escalate with, with reverb. And very little of this movie crackled for me. It's not particularly scary. The aesthetic, yes, it is very A24. So there is like a beauty and an attention to detail, but it does feel at this point too generic for A24. It kind of lacked imagination. And then ultimately, once we, we sink our teeth down into the heart of the movie, the meat and potatoes, I, it just feels like we're getting treated to basic Theology 101 and not in a particularly fun way or clever way. And the thing is, I enjoy certain elements of the movie. It's like, I like these young women. I like the dialogue between them, particularly in the beginning of the movie. It's like they have distinct characters and you want to root for them, see where their characters do end up going in this experiment. But unfortunately, the payoff here is so simplistic and so uninspired that I think the whole idea behind the intellect of this character completely falls, falls apart at that point. His attempts at all these gotcha enlightenment moments where he's lecturing these young women, it's just flimsy because again, nothing he is saying is particularly interesting. It's like anyone with half a brain at some point in their lives has entertained ideas like this. Maybe not with the, with the eloquence of Hugh Grant and with the fancy words, but you know, they've done it, they've arrived at it. And once he's made all of his pseudo intellectual points about religion and about the way that it is packaged through narrative, all of this, he then reveals his true reasoning behind this entire game. And it is so stupid. I'm not going to give it away, but for somebody this intellectual or whatever to design an entire game in this fashion around something this idiotic, it's just like, I was laughing out loud at that point. And that kind of humor could have been fun. I think if they had leaned more into it. Um, and also I think if the movie had had better tension, it would have been more interesting because you can see the ending of this movie, or at least the idea for this movie coming a mile away. As I'm watching it, I'm thinking to myself, Oh God, is this, is this going where I think it's going? It better not because if it does, that would be so stupid, but show enough. Now I do think it would have been funny if the movie had leaned more into the joke where it's making fun of the Hugh Grant character. It's like where it's making fun of intellectuals and that sort of the academic, how they'll have all these fancy words, all these interesting concepts they want to talk about, but ultimately it's just talk and they arrive at nothing and do nothing with it. I don't know. So I think that would have been hilarious, but there's something to the humor in this movie that it just feels off and not in the way that they meant for it to be. It's just like it's dark humor, obviously, but it always felt too obvious and a little bit out of place. I think it would have been more interesting to, if the dialogue was less on the nose or like it disguised its intentions a little bit more because it would bring out more of a human side in the characters, particularly the, uh, the young girls, because the point is that we're going to learn about them. It's like, we're going to have revelations about who they are. It's like when they decide to challenge Mr. Reed at certain points, they no longer feel like characters. They feel like mouthpieces for the screenwriter. And I just, I don't buy into it quite. And I'm going to be honest. A lot of my problems with this movie ultimately stem from the performance of Hugh Grant. And I have to say before I start there, I am a huge Hugh Grant fan. I like, he's one of those actors who I have a soft spot in my heart for him because I kind of grew up on his movies as a child, but I was just really hoping that he would explore more sides of his talent and maybe more sides of his acting vulnerability here. I think it would have been more interesting if he did find some looseness within that character. He's clinging too hard to this cheerful, cheeky, awkward sort of tactic. But what this performance revealed to me is I think he's still a little bit too afraid to go to those darker places. His typical persona here, yeah, I think it was meant to be, like I said, a gateway drug into a darker place. But as the movie goes on, it starts to feel more like a distraction. It never bridges any gaps dramatically for the character. And so he doesn't feel like much of a character. Grant has often said that he loves dialogue and it's quite clear that's his wheelhouse and that he doesn't like more of the cinematic acting. When I say cinematic acting, I mean the acting with no words where maybe he has to do like a close-up or he has to react, a reaction shot, something of that nature. He hates that. And right there, I think that's the problem with this role. Yes, he is charming, he's charismatic, all those things, but it's like ultimately when you look in his eyes and you look at the in-between when it comes to this character, it's like he's not revealing much dimension to the soul. If Grant does continue with these roles in the future, and I really hope he does, I hope that the next time he can shed those comfort levels even more because I think he is totally capable of it. There was some sort of something brewing between this trio of people, a complexity that maybe is not on the surface, but you could feel the undercurrent of it, just in their chemistry. And I found myself really interested in that. And just Hugh Grant, you know, again as a persona, it's like he's handsome, he's debonair and all that. But I have to say, there's something about him. I love him so much, but my reaction to him as a woman has always been more platonic. And I think this movie uses that, at least on the surface, to its advantage. It's like, you know, I think most girls would not go into a house if it was like some domineering, like masculine kind of guy. That would be intimidating. But when it's Hugh Grant, it's like, oh okay, yeah sure. So he starts to find this indirect pathway to that masculine dominance when it comes to women. And I don't know, I thought that was cool. Again, I just wanted a lot more of that to be shown in character. Moments are always forming in the movie, and at times it's like you can see where these ideas could have been provocative if explored in the dialogue in an interesting way. But the movie becomes just so lazy when it gets to a certain point, and it just descends into the typical horror schlock that we're so used to. A bunch of cliches, but in particular these are the A24 arthouse cliches. It does feel kind of, I don't want to be too mean, but it feels kind of like the A24 clearance item. The leftovers of all the symbolism within A24 movies that is, yeah, zapped of a little bit of imagination. But you know, that's just my opinion. I think if you're listening to this review, you have a good sense of whether you're going to like this movie or not. For some people, I think they're going to like it. If you're an A24 fan, I think that this might be worth streaming, but I wouldn't go pay full price for this. But that is my review. Thank you guys so much for watching. I'm going to plug my website. As always, it is deepfocuslens.com. I'm an artist, I do commissioned portraits, and I sell prints of my work. If that is something that you're interested in, you can always go to the website below, and if you have a question about a commission or a print, you can always email me. 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