Opinions expressed in reviews on The Central Trend are the view of the individual writer and are not the opinion of the entire staff of The Central Trend or the Forest Hills Central staff or administration.
They say seeing is believing, but I’ve always been a skeptic, even to the things right in front of me.
I pride myself on being a fairly logical person; it’s the facts and figures that formulate the scientific truth for me. Though the truth is an inherently muddy principle, going out of my way to obtain every perspective on every possibility is what makes me believe.
Especially in the diplomatic climate of today, my need for tangible evidence has become more useful than ever: research, reality, data, and citations provide a more concrete understanding of things than any claimed quote ever could.
So, when I heard about the film Heretic for the first time, I was hesitant to watch it, even with its quality reviews, simply because it was built upon the foundation of a topic I’ve never truly found believable; however, if I’d known that it had a more inclusive take on the subject than anything I’ve ever seen before, I would’ve watched it instantly.
To begin, it follows the story of two missionaries, Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Sister Paxton (Chloe East), as they perform house calls to supply information on the Mormon Church. When invited into a stranger’s, Mr. Reed’s (Hugh Grant), house, which seems preferable to the impending rainstorm they’re about to be caught in, the Sisters realize he is more educated in his faith than they realized. Soon after they understand he’s not letting them leave, a game of cat-and-mouse ensues as he makes them question their ideologies and promises to introduce them to the one true religion.
Honestly, I’ve been pretty dissatisfied with the majority of the films coming out recently. Especially those in the horror genre. It takes quite a bit to make me truly uneasy, so when Heretic induced those feelings, I was pleasantly surprised.
The aspect that stood out to me right away and never wavered throughout the entirety of the movie was the stunning depth of the dialogue. Maybe I’m just used to seeing advertisements for subpar superhero films that have nothing but superficial talking points, but it was clear that an immense amount of thought and research was put into this script. I noticed long ago that even when a production doesn’t have a large budget or bigger stars, the writing is what really makes a movie impactful; it’s quite obvious how much care was placed into the creation of this storyline.
Its eccentricity is what created a unique, well-rounded feel. For example, Reed compared Christianity to Judaism with the analogy of Monopoly and its older version, The Landlord’s Game, to emphasize religious marketing and originality while proving his informative points by explaining the many musical copyright allegations to “Creep” by Radiohead. Even going as far as comparing Jesus to Jar Jar Binks, every seemingly unrelated allusion referenced in Reed’s poignant monologues connected to create a solid argument of disbelief in the principles the Sisters exist by.
In a strangely unsettling way, I couldn’t help but be sucked into the reasoning behind Reed’s rationale.
I found it extremely interesting that a modern movie brought into question the idea of how far someone is willing to go for what they truly believe in. It makes the viewer think in depth if they’re living their lives by something they actually trust or if they’re going through the motions because they’ve been told to trust it.
Beyond being a mind-bending story on religious confidence, Heretic debates philosophies with humor and grace that seem to be rare in Hollywood today.
