render :file not working quite right

If I have code like this:

render :file => "#{Rails.root}/public/404.html", :status => :not_found

It will not find the file and render it; it will instead raise an error like so:

ActionView::MissingTemplate: Missing template /404.html with {:formats=>[:html]} in view path /Users/jeremymcanally/code/... {tons of paths here} ...

It seems that either this behavior should be restored or perhaps public should be added to the view paths (so I would just have to do render :file => "404.html" or something). I don't know the right solution; I just know that it doesn't behave like it used (since this code was working previously and still works on 2.3).