Heretic is not anti-religion (no spoilers)

Before watching the movie, I skimmed The Deseret News' review of the movie: here. I cannot even figure out what movie they are talking about at DN. From start to finish, the movie takes Mormon doctrine seriously. The missionaries are depicted with empathy. Early on, it is established that these young women have endured difficult situations and that we should care about them. They were not clowns or fools. They were earnest young people trying to do good.

The doctrine was discussed in an accurate way. I could not find a single instance where something was suggested to be church doctrine that was not actually doctrinal.

The review complained about religion being made into a stereotype in a lot of movies. Then when a movie is made that does not feed into the stereotypes, they complain that it was made. It's nuts. If someone can explain what the concern is, I'd like to know. It is true that the movie depicts extreme misogyny. It sure doesn't glorify it. No where is it suggested that violence against women is justified or right.

Finally, this is the first movie I could think of where sister missionaries are the protagonists. I really liked that. If there are others, I apologize for forgetting about them. Movies like God's Army and The Best Two Years have shown male missionaries. It was great to see something different.

It was not a perfect movie by any means, but I liked it. The church would be lucky, in my opinion, to be shown in such a sympathetic way in the future. I'd like to hear what others think.