The trailer for Heretic is both a help and a hindrance.  On one hand, it protects the film’s plot twists by not revealing any details from the second half.  On the other hand, it clearly spells out the opening act and so my patience grew thin while waiting for something interesting to happen.  If you’ve avoided the promotional material, it’s about two young women from the Church of Latter-Day Saints who, in trying to convert folk to their religion, arrive on the doorstep of a man in the middle of a pelting rain storm.

Romantic comedies made him a Hollywood star (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill) but Hugh Grant has pivoted in recent years and now relishes the chance to play kookie, oddball villains.  The list includes Paddington 2, The Gentlemen, Operation Fortune: Ruse, De Guerre, and Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves.  The trend continues with Heretic.  In welcoming Sisters Barnes (Thatcher) and Paxton (East) into his home, Grant mixes charm and creepiness in portraying a character whose motives are murky.

It soon becomes evident to the two women that this is no ordinary guy.  He starts out with naïve questions about their religion and then he quickly reveals himself to be super-educated about all the world’s religions.  The Sisters are on the backfoot as he’s doing most of the talking – pointing out the similarities between key religions and the contradictions that lie within their sacred texts.  None of it is particularly profound and, as if dragging out the film’s run time, he rambles and rambles.  Why use 100 words when you can use 1,000, right?

It’s not a bad idea for a movie but the execution is subpar.  The biggest frustration is the topsy-turvy nature to the characters and how they don’t stay true to themselves.  There are moments when they’re utterly clueless and others when they’re brilliantly calculating.  I didn’t buy it.  Nor did I believe the narrative surprises in the later stages (the more you think about them, the less sense they make).  The writer-director duo of Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, who authored A Quiet Place, know what they want the completed puzzle to look like… but not all the pieces fit.

Reviews have been mostly positive since the film’s world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival and I’ll concede to being in the minority.  I assume most are seeing it as a simple, keep-you-guessing thriller but looking through my own lens, Heretic doesn’t live up to its hype and ambitions.