Of course you do. Wouldn’t we all? For no matter what Barnes and Paxton do, they find themselves in a situation from which there is no escape. The choice they were offered proved to be a myth. Somehow, the film avoids going down a route exploring concepts of fate and free-will, which would have been entirely appropriate, but it doesn’t matter. For now we understand that Mr Reed has an agenda. He’s going to tell these two young Mormon girls what he believes the one true religion is whether they want to here it or not.
Heretic is a film about the lengths some men will go to in order to explain their point to women who’d really prefer to be elsewhere.
If you take a step away from it to look at what this character has done to get to this point, it’s utterly ridiculous. For a start, these missionaries are there on invite. He has expressed an interest in learning more about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It’s not like they’ve approached him uninvited and he teaches them a cruel lesson.
And in order to teach them what the one true religion is, he’s had to adapt his entire house. And carry out other highly illegal acts.
And what’s the motive for all of this?
Heretic is a film about the lengths some men will go to in order to explain their point to women who’d really prefer to be elsewhere.
Megalomaniacal mansplaining. That’s all it is.
It’s not going to give you a theological awakening. The reveal is far from original. There’s some questionable stuff at the end with butterflies.
So, Heretic as a film wasn’t a terrible way to spend a couple of hours, but largely because Hugh Grant was entertaining to watch.
Think about it too closely, though and it’ll collapse. I’ll let you draw your own analogy there.
You may now go at your own free will (which you’ve actually had all along).
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