Hugh Grant is always charming. That quality has served him well in decades of romantic comedy roles, even when playing characters who might otherwise be less than endearing, like an elected official who romances a member of his staff, or a layabout who pretends to be a parent in order to date single mothers. It’s served Grant equally well in his recent turn toward villainy, as he weaponizes that charm in service of truly reprehensible characters who nevertheless come off as likable.
After playing devious antagonists in Paddington 2, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, and the Guy Ritchie films The Gentlemen and Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre, Grant reached the pinnacle of his villain era with Scott Beck and Bryan Woods’ 2024 horror movie Heretic, which is now streaming on Max. Grant’s bad-guy characters in those other films were often silly — overconfident buffoons who received deserved comeuppance from the heroes. In Heretic, Grant’s Mr. Reed is closer to one of his rom-com characters, a self-aware cad whose nastiness is inextricable from his appeal.
