As a movie dork, one of the most thrilling things for me is when a typecast actor defiantly refuses to be typecast. We humans rely on pattern recognition to try (and often fail) to make sense of the world. When things are as they’re supposed to be, we’re content. When the pattern breaks, it can either be catastrophic or wonderful. Movies are no different, and when Dwayne Johnson plays a confident yet good hearted beast,* we get the sense that the world is in balance.  

Imbalance can make movies interesting, such as when Tom Cruise plays a profane Hollywood executive in Tropic Thunder, when Charlize Theron plays a white trash serial killer in Monster, or when Michael Keaton plays Batman. With all those examples, an exciting x-factor was introduced. To be sure, it doesn’t always work out. Harrison Ford played the role of a criminally stubborn inventor in The Mosquito Coast. Bill Murray thought it might be a good change of pace to play a traumatized seeker of enlightenment in The Razor’s Edge. Keanu Reeves took a shot as a calculating serial murderer in The Watcher.** Films have a mysterious alchemy, and sometimes that x-factor doesn’t play well with the other elements.

That brings us to Hugh Grant. Initially, his career was built upon costume dramas and romantic comedies, and he played numerous floppy-haired dandies. For a while, anyway. Grant began to play with his image in films like About A Boy and Bridget Jones’ Diary, before he took serious risks in Cloud Atlas, A Very English Scandal, and The Gentlemen. He’s one of those actors who seems to be getting better as he gets older. The most recent proof of that is Heretic, where Grant perhaps plays one of the great screen villains.

We’re introduced to Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Sister Paxton (Chloe East), a pair of young members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. They trudge through town gamely trying to convert people. When they’re lucky, they’re ignored. When they’re unlucky, they’re mocked. In between those moments, they wonder about the mysteries of sex.*** They wonder if they fit in with other teens. They wonder about the kinds of things we all wonder about.

Part of the good sisters’ job is to fan the flame of wonder, hopefully in the direction of conversion. They have an appointment to do just that, with a man who’s asked them to come by his home and give him more information about their faith. So off Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton go to the home of Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant). They arrive slightly ahead of what looks to be a serious blizzard. With luck, the chat will be brief.

Reed is an older man. He’s charming, considerate, and non-threatening. He asks Sisters Barnes and Paxton if they want to come inside for the presentation. When the good sisters tell him a woman needs to be present due to propriety, Reed smiles warmly and directs them to a tantalizing scent. His wife is just in the kitchen baking a lovely blueberry pie. As they’re invited in, Reed casually asks if the fact that his walls and ceilings are metal-lined will be a problem? They assure him it’s not, but it most assuredly will be a problem later.

You see, behind Reed’s affable smile and acres of Dad jokes lies a formidable and pitiless intelligence. He has strong opinions. He thinks that not only is there no God, but that faith itself is little more than a scam. He thinks throughout the centuries, certain kinds of stories are told over and over, all designed by the strong to control the weak. Reed thinks it’s time for the faiths of Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton to be tested, and to discover what they truly believe.

Heretic is the kind of movie that’s cinematic catnip for me, one that effectively merges genre thrills with capital-I Ideas. Directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods have made a marvelously tense film that mostly features people talking to each other while standing or sitting. It helps that they’re working with Chung-hoon Chung, the cinematographer who shot Last Night in Soho, Stoker, and the legendarily deranged Oldboy. Together, they create a truly claustrophobic experience in which the camera holds tight on faces and the corridors of a very strange house. That tightness means we’re trapped alongside Sister Paxton and Sister Barnes, which is the right choice for a film like this.

Beck and Woods wrote the screenplay, and perhaps the first half is the best half. That’s where Reed gradually lowers the trap around Paxton and Barnes, and while it features so much dialogue that Quentin Tarantino would stand up and cheer, it’s never dull. The script has a laser focus on characterization between the innocent Sister Paxton, the somewhat more worldly Sister Barnes, and the calmly sociopathic Reed. It works best when everyone is talking around the growing tension, and when the sisters are initially trapped by their own manners. Things become slightly less interesting once Reed’s plan is fully unveiled. I suppose that can’t be helped, since the unknown holds so much power. In case you’re worried this is going to be misery porn all the way down, I should mention that the screenplay is often very funny. Beck and Woods wisely use the humor as a pressure valve, which makes the tension hit harder when necessary. Perhaps best of all is that, beyond being an effective horror movie, the script asks big questions. Are the world’s largest institutions built on a lie? Is faith nothing more than a mechanism for control? Most scripts don’t have the courage to raise concepts like this, but this one does.

A film like this lives or dies by the strength of its actors, and luckily everyone understood the assignment. Hugh Grant is the biggest name, and you’ll recognize some of his actorly tics, such as the warm grin and the impish sense of humor. But Grant does two things which are impressive and not surprising to me. The first is his usage of his image as a weapon. When Barnes and Paxton meet Reed, they figure they’re dealing with a likable English gent. Reed uses their assumptions to slowly draw them in, and get them to a point where they have no choice but to play his game. The second is that the hyperverbal Grant understands how to use silence better than most performers. He knows how to listen, and how to nonverbally communicate emotion through the screen. That’s an undervalued and critically important skill.

Grant doesn’t steamroll over his co-stars, though. The funnier performance comes from Chloe East as the exuberantly loquacious Sister Paxton. She plays one of those people who’s a natural talker, and as she becomes more uneasy, the chatter increases. Yet as chatty as she is, Paxton is no fool, and it’s just as entertaining watching her think her way out of problems. She’s partnered well with Sophie Thatcher as Sister Barnes. As Sister Barnes, we sense she’s a young woman who may have gone through the kinds of things that would break a great many people her age. Her most satisfying moment is when she throws Reed’s lecturing back in his face. Barnes knows that doing so may have sealed her fate, but at least, for a moment, she got Reed to shut up.

Heretic is a great many things. It’s a top shelf horror movie, a showcase for some of the best acting Hugh Grant has ever done, and a smart drama centering around faith and its works. For me, it’s also one of the best films of the year.

*I’ve yelled for years about Johnson continually playing the same kinds of roles, despite the fact that it’s worked out incredibly well for him from a financial and cultural perspective. The guy remains a strong actor, and if you want to see him stretching his acting muscles, check him out in the unrepentantly sleazy Pain and Gain, the revenge thriller Faster, and the weird AF Southland Tales. 

**Allegedly, this happened because the director forged Reeves’ signature on a contract, and that Reeves decided taking the role was less hassle than a lengthy legal battle. Is this true? I have no idea, but it’s an incredible story.

***The way Chloe East pronounces the word “pornography” is worth the price of admission alone.

Tim Brennan Movie Critic

Tim has been alarmingly enthusiastic about movies ever since childhood. He grew up in Boulder and, foolishly, left Colorado to study Communications in Washington State. Making matters worse, he moved to Connecticut after meeting his too-good-for-him wife. Drawn by the Rockies and a mild climate, he triumphantly returned and settled down back in Boulder County. He's written numerous screenplays, loves hiking, and embarrassed himself in front of Samuel L. Jackson. True story.