Alternate Best Actor 2024: Hugh Grant in Heretic

Hugh Grant did not receive an Oscar nomination, despite being nominated for a BAFTA, for portraying Mr. Reed in Heretic. 

Heretic follows two Mormon missionaries (Sophie Thatcher, Chloe East) who unfortunately enter the house of a committed reddit user. 

Hugh Grant plays that committed reddit user, and in so many ways Hugh Grant is this film because getting to see him just sink his teeth into a villainous performance is the majority of the reason to watch this film which…I’ll get into a little later. As right off the bat when the two Mormons sister Barnes (Thatcher) and Paxton (East) approach Grant’s Mr. Reed’s house to spread their word, Grant is a tremendous amount of fun. Grant is very much utilizing his known presence as the stuttering yet charming leading man, who may blink more than once, in setting up the seemingly harmless enough older man who wouldn’t mind inviting in the two women for a discussion on religion. Grant very much brings the charm he was typically called upon in the majority of his 90’s to 00’s performances with his bright smile and generally slightly goofiness that creates an affability. Grant alludes to the eventual nature of the character however in just slightly off glances as he encourages the two to come into his house, which they refuse until he assures that his wife is inside “baking pie”. Grant is convincing enough to bring in moments mostly by being the Hugh Grant presence we’ve come to expect, and is kind of the tee off for the character as essentially once they enter the house it is the slow switch from one nature to another. 

Grant very much IS the film because so much of it becomes a whole lot of just talking about religion as Reed begins to discuss religion about them. Grant's first switch becomes a mix between his old charm though now with this growing directness in his delivery. Grant’s wonderful in the way he smiles after every sort of beat in the discussion almost to disarm them one more time, even as Mr. Reed, for someone seemingly just curiously interested in the Mormon church, offers some vast knowledge of the specifics of the founding of the faith. Where Grant emphasizes certain pieces of these descriptions with a cold analysis suddenly, where it seems less of him opening for further discussion and more so the first in what will be many attacks along the way. Something that continues as he questions more from each of the sisters, where Grant becomes more intense in his questioning and you see sort of any of that charm in Grant fade away suddenly in moments to great effect. Grant’s eyes become so cold such when he asks about Barnes’s deceased dad, specifics about his death and then asking if she’s contacted him from the presumed afterlife. Grant in particular suddenly loses any semblance of his little smile having a tremendous impact as his eyes instead begin to pierce as the man begins to try to break down both of the women to their very core. 

At a certain point Reed kind of loses any notion of pretending he is just “curious” with slightly sinister undertones to just openly direct in his attacks on the beliefs of the women and notes that he will help them find the “one true religion” where all sort of warmth purges from Grant’s face which is most disturbing from him in particular. Which becomes more alarming when the women find they can’t get out from the door they came in and Reed doesn’t seem like he intends to allow them to leave. Grant is having a ton of fun in this performance, and very much makes these scenes work just by having the fun that he does. As Grant very much plays around with the nature of the character, such as when he purposefully builds dread, where Grant is very entertaining by very much playing Mr. Reed as knowing about his own increasingly sinister nature, and that Mr. Reed himself is having fun in the strange game of his. Grant selling honestly so many of the lines that frankly go a bit on and on to say the least in setting up that the women can’t leave, and making them sing simply by his delivery of them that infuses each with an energy that is captivating within his own performance even as honestly the dialogue starts to get a bit repetitive. 

Following this we get Mr. Reed goes into his very long screed against religion by challenging every facet of their religious beliefs by connecting elements of pop culture and general beliefs while going about taking stabs at various aspects of religious beliefs. And what makes this scene work is largely Grant because he really colors every aspect as we very slowly rundown Reed’s thesis on the growth of monotheistic religions. Grant does this by just being so playful with all his different lines in going in really surprising directions in just throwing random bits of color to accentuate one line or another, creating an unpredictability within the very long exposition. Grant’s delivery is engaging in itself by itself, he’s just a delight to watch here in running with every line he has, but it also does serve the film in the way he switches on dime adds to the potential danger of the character. Because Grant so naturally goes goofy in one moment by his suddenly singing of “Creep” with an American accent, or at one point even doing a Jar Jar Binks impression, to being straight in his refined accent, to suddenly getting the glints in his eye of a most nefarious purpose. Grant is just dancing around with the lines that get through the scene just beautifully, and entirely makes the scene through his performance. Honestly I think if you had a lesser actor, the scene itself probably would crumble, but Grant makes it work. 

Unfortunately the crumbling comes right after this scene anyways, where Mr. Reed makes the sisters choose a door and clearly the screenwriters had no particularly clever ideas of where to take this story after the screed scene. As we get into a whole dumb thing where Mr. Reed apparently has these captive troglodyte women to make a false miracle where one revives by eating a poisoned pie by having doubles, which in itself is a ridiculously dumb plan since he tells the women what’s in the pie, he could’ve just lied about the contents of the pie to begin with. Anyway it is all to get them to eventually find a hidden layer where every choice led to him controlling them to get them to say religion about control, which he wants because he wanted to be a serial killer who gets people to denounce their faith beforehand? To get them to become troglodyte women maybe? As we never do get why he even has them. Something? I don’t know, I don’t think the screenwriters knew either, as the film completely falls apart, finding nowhere to go and not really giving Grant anything interesting to do after a certain point. I’ll give Grant credit he’s still good, and elevates every line he does have, bringing the right still entertainment value mixed in with a chilling cutting into every time he springs up to hassle the women some more. But in the end he can do only so much with just how weak the material gets by the end of the film. Still even with the letdown of the film as a whole, Grant runs with the showcase he does get in the first half of the film, and successfully utilizes what made him such a popular actor in the first place combined with some new shades of his talent beyond the pigeonhole he had been placed into.