"Shall we start with an opening prayer?" Hugh Grant in the upcoming film Heretic
Perhaps unsurprisingly, over at SeN, Dr. Peterson is exclaiming that he felt "almost physically ill" when he learned about the movie. He goes on to elaborate:
Very interesting, no? It's intriguing that this is coming in the wake of his rather rueful post the other day, where he wondered whether he'd done any "good" on his own mission. And there is certainly a lot to analyze in these comments of his. Surely part of his reaction has to do with the fact that this will clearly be a better film than Six Days in August. Based just on the promotional materials for the two movies, it's obvious that Heretic wins in terms of production design, acting, cinematography, and sheer filmmaking craft. So, yeah: I have no doubt that he's "sick" with envy.I have always deeply disliked Hugh Grant as an actor. Even when I’ve liked a movie in which he starred, I’ve had to like it in spite of his being in it. And, based purely on one old news story involving him, I don’t especially admire him as a person. I doubt that Heretic is going to cause me like him more.
I find the very idea of Heretics (sic) viscerally upsetting. But will the film give deranged people deranged ideas? Will it make missionary service, especially for sister missionaries, more dangerous? I don’t know. I hope not, but I suppose that’s a possibility. It’s certainly imaginable.
But I'm also struck by his remark that he doesn't "especially admire" Hugh Grant "as a person." That's quite a grudge to carry, no? I assume he's referring to the 1995 incident in which Grant was caught with a prostitute. So, this was nearly 30 years ago, and Grant went on national TV--Jay Leno's late night show--and admitted that he "did a bad thing." Why is Peterson still bothered by this? Then again, it helps to justify those who continue to see problems with DCP's salivating over Jennerifer Lopez's rear end, or his telling Blair Hodges to "Go to hell!", or organizing smear campaigns against various people, etc. At least Grant had the honesty to admit that he'd done something wrong.
Meanwhile, his last observation--that the *film* will inspire people to engage in "copycat"-style activities (did he even bother to watch the trailer?) is bizarre. Is he not concerned that 6 Days in August will inspire additional anti-Community of Christ bigotry in much the same way? And besides, you'd think that he'd *like* the film's premise. The trailer shows that Grant is attempting to test the two sister missionaries' faith: "You will witness a miracle," he says, ominously.
Of course, I can see a critic pointing out that the Mopologists don't actually care about "faith," which is no doubt true. Then again, being forced to pit your craptastic propaganda film against a professionally-made A24 production is, in a sense, a "test of faith" as well.
