Heretic

Film: Heretic

Year: 2024

Director: Scott Beck and Bryan Woods

Writers: Scott Beck and Bryan Woods

Starring: Hugh Grant, Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East

Review:

This was a film that caught my attention when the trailer played at the Gateway Film Center. I wasn’t sure what we’d get here and the bit that I saw looked interesting. Now this is one that I caught on the Sunday of opening weekend. I heard mixed thoughts about it so that made me curious to check this out to see where I’d fall.

Synopsis: two young religious women are drawn into a game of cat-and-mouse in the house of a strange man.

We start this off in an interesting way. There are two women who are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They are Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Sister Paxton (Chloe East). What is good in this opening sequence is that we learn Paxton is more sheltered. She also gets embarrassed by a group of teens. We learn soon after that Barnes is a convert. She grew up in Philadelphia before moving with her mother after her father died. Paxton was raised in the Mormon faith from birth.

These two have a list of houses to visit that day. It starts to rain and they go to Mr. Reed’s (Hugh Grant). They go into their spiel and he knows more than your average person. He invites them in, but they cannot unless a woman is present. Mr. Reed tells them that this wife is here, she is currently baking a pie. They agree to enter.

Like the synopsis says, it becomes a game of cat-and-mouse from here. They inquire about Mrs. Reed and if she can come into the room. He goes to get her but comes back saying that she is shy. She will be in once the pie is ready. Despite their rules, they engage in conversation with him about religion. They get to know each other and Mr. Reed is trying to find the religion that best fits him. Barnes is more perceptive and starts to notice odd things. She wants to leave. They discover that the door is locked though. They venture deeper into the house where we see how truly deceptive Mr. Reed is being. He also allows them to leave, but they have to find their way.

That is where I’ll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. I’m doing it this way actually due to the fact that this doesn’t have the most complex story. This is dialogue heavy and what is more about what they’re debating. It is Mr. Reed verbally sparring with the two women. He brings up good points that made me pause. What I like though is that at first, Barnes points out fallacies with the information he is presenting. Paxton does as well, but she takes a backseat until later. I will credit that growth though from the timid young lady we start with to where she ends up. I do like the points that are being made here, but I also think that it is ham-fisted at times.

Let’s then delve deeper into this. Mr. Reed is actually similar to me, at least in the beginning. He has a thirst for knowledge. What we don’t know though is what is the truth or what is things he’s saying to mess with these two missionaries. He does say that this drive to find the true religion came from an academic paper that he was writing. There is a great analogy that he presents with Judaism, Christianity and Muslim. He does this through the similarities and differences of The Landlord’s Game to the more popular off-shoot of Monopoly as well as the variations on that game. The evidence he presents is flawed. What I loved there is it made me think of a class I took in college with the premise of how to lie with statistics. Grant brings a charisma to the role that lulls you in with what he’s saying. It isn’t until the two women start to feel uncomfortable that you see the darkness behind it.

On the other side of this we have Barnes and Paxton. The former has more life experience. She also has dealt with struggles in her life from losing her father and then needing to work for what you have with your mother. Paxton doesn’t have that same fight outside of bullying. This ordeal changes her. I do like both standing up for what they believe in with Barnes coming to the faith at an older age. There is a good line here though that even with all their religious studying and the nature of what they’re doing, there are things they didn’t consider. It took an outside perspective there. I’ll credit both Thatcher and East here. I do think the former was stronger, but seeing the changes from the latter was good.

It is where I’ll go next that I’m going to tread lightly to not spoil. Mr. Reed lures these two women to his house to learn more about the Mormon church. He reveals to them that he has done his own research. That is where things get pointed out with their own faith that they didn’t consider. I did like that. He then points out that he has found the one true religion. The missionaries get uncomfortable and want to leave. He wants to ‘test’ them. I’m good with all this. I do like challenging religion and pointing out things that are issues. It also does well in questioning faith as well as belief. My problem here is that this takes shots at religion in general, but I think it missed a chance to really stand out with the climax. The direction it went felt tired to me. It didn’t land how I think the co-writers/directors wanted. I know that this is a me problem and there will be people out there that love it. The direction this goes felt like it wanted to make a statement more than a great movie.

Where I’ll then shift is to filmmaking. I will warn everyone that this film is mostly dialogue. The delivery was good. Seeing the change in tone, inflection and how it affects the characters was great. No issues there. There are even good points on both sides being made. The problem is that a majority of this is talking and it bogs the pacing down. There are creepy moments and things that get revealed. The problem is that it doesn’t carry enough to help fully build the tension for me. It has such a bleakness that we never give that hope that truly drives things home to work better. I do think the setting of this house is great. The little machines that Mr. Reed uses were good. The limited effects we got were great. The look of certain people we met later was as well. They went practical with effects and they were brutal. I’d also say that the soundtrack fit what was needed.

In conclusion, this is a film that I’m torn on. There are things that I love here. Grant’s performance as this manic is great. His charisma to lure these two women into his house and how it escalates is good. How they play off that is as well, so credit to Thatcher and East. There is a good atmosphere here and this is well made to capture that, with the cinematography, framing and effects helping there. My issue is that this runs too long. It is also dialogue heavy, which bogs it down. I also don’t love where it decides to go as it feels like a missed opportunity to do what we were building toward. It almost feels like the safer choice. I still think this is a solid film that is worth a watch if what I said works for you.

My Rating: 7.5 out of 10