After flirting back and forth online for three weeks, 32 year old Jeff (Patrick Wilson) decides to knowingly meet up with naïve 14 year old Hayley (Ellen Page), the two meet in a café and although Hayley acts like she’s older than her years it’s clear from her boyish haircut, flat chest and the innocent things she says that she’s no woman. Jeff buys her a coffee and a t-shirt and after Hayley mentions how much she loves Goldfrapp Jeff informs her that he was at their latest concert and recorded it, Hayley hints at going back to his house to watch it and Jeff happily obliges.
Once back at his house, Jeff willingly gives Hayley alcohol, lets her look through his pictures as he’s a professional photographer and he even agrees to shoot her with her top off. However when taking the pictures Jeff starts to feel faint and eventually collapses. Is it the sexual predator or the naïve child that we should be worried for?
Hard Candy was described as the most controversial thriller of 2006 for dealing with subjects that most other movies wouldn’t dream of even passing by let alone creating an entire movie based around it.
The subject of paedophilia surrounds the entire movie and is the motive for what happens throughout the film, fortunately the film doesn’t go into details like I was half expecting it to, when Hayley finds pictures in Jeff’s safe all you see is the look at Hayley’s face, this works on many levels because you never know exactly what the pictures are of, they could be of anything but of course you could assume that they’re child pornography therefore the director leaves it up to the viewer to make their mind up about Jeff. You never see Jeff touch Hayley either which is a good thing because it would have likely created a national outcry if the film depicted a 14 year old girl being molested by someone
18 years her senior. For a movie with a premise that is surrounded by paedophilia it is done very tastefully, you never see anything distasteful centring around the extremely touchy subject and I think the director deserves felicitations for doing such a good job with this aspect.
Nearly everything apart from the paedophilia subject is very brutal and I wouldn’t recommend this film to someone of a weak disposition because there are some parts that are extremely disturbing. There’s one scene in particular that sticks out in my memory even after seeing it for the first time a couple of years ago it was the scene I remembered most vividly, if you’ve seen this film you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about, it had my boyfriend wincing that’s all I’m saying! Having said that, most of the film is psychologically brutal in favour of physical brutality, there’s talk of a young girls murder in the film which is pinned on Jeff.
What annoyed me about this film is that there is no real evidence on Jeff to prove that he is a paedophile or even a murderer, granted he met a girl online but as aforementioned, we never see him touch her. I’m no barrister but meeting a girl online wont stand up in court to prove someone’s a paedophile. It was a nice touch how the director gave us snippets of information enough for us to make our own judgement of whether Jeff was guilty or not but by the end I was expecting to find out for sure but you never do, there are things that hint that he is but on the other hand there are certain aspects that hint at him being completely innocent, you never know which is disappointing.
The fact that you never fully know whether Jeff is a paedophile or not makes it hard for you to connect with either character, you don’t know whether to feel sorry for Jeff as a result of a tragic case of mistaken identity or think that he’s getting exactly what he deserves. The same goes for Hayley, you don’t know whether to back her up or condemn her for what she’s doing to what could be an innocent man.
Having said that, the acting is fantastic from both parties involved, this is basically a two man show with only Jeff and Hayley taking centre stage. Patrick Wilson is great, I’m sure that it’s not a role a lot of men would like to take on so he deserves credit for even taking on the role. Another thing that I liked about his performance, or maybe just him in general is the fact that his character of a suspected paedophile isn’t stereotyped. The director didn’t cast a fat, balding, chain-smoking, alcoholic, penniless man, instead they thought outside the box and cast a good looking, clever and wealthy man. Patrick Wilson plays his part convincingly and really pulls off the despaired look, he also doesn’t come across too innocent on the other hand he doesn’t come across as evil which is something that goes in his favour because it proves that you can never judge a book by it’s cover.
Ellen Page is definitely the star of the film though and far outshines her co-star, this was her breakout role before she starred in the magnificent Juno in 2007 and she did an excellent job in Hard Candy, she remains compelling and frightening throughout the film and for me, without her the film wouldn’t have been half as captivating as it was. It’s amazing how her character instantly transforms and the way she depicts a 14 year old to be an unhinged psychopath is brilliant and extremely disturbing.
This is one of those films that showcases the age old idea that people shouldn’t judge things on face value, if you look at this film at face value you’ll assume that this poor child is in danger from the deviant sexual predator, this is where the twists are so effective however were ruined by the trailers. If the trailers hadn’t have shown the twist of this film then I wouldn’t have mentioned it in this but as the cat’s already out of the bag there’s no harm in mentioning it. This isn’t the only twist in the film though, which is something that I wont spoil, I like the way the film manages to deceive people right from the offset and I was very impressed with how it leads the audience into thinking a certain way only to snatch that thought out of their head in an instant. It would have been a lot more shocking if people hadn’t have known about the twist beforehand however if the twist wasn’t revealed then this film would simply revolve around a paedophile with an influential young girl in his home, something that certainly wouldn’t appeal to me and I’m sure a lot of other people would feel the same. The film plays around with people’s sense of reality and really makes you question your own morals.
The camera movements were something I was very impressed with, it’s not something that you should watch if you’ve got a headache though because it uses a handheld camera in places however the director knows where to draw the line and only uses it at certain moments where it becomes very effective and makes the house feel very claustrophobic.
The film remains compelling and captivating whilst being provocative and highly controversial, this is a film that is handled tastefully with a brilliant story, excellent twists, deceptive characters but unfortunately a disappointing ending. We don’t find out the truth and I do feel that the film goes on a bit too long, at 103 minutes it’s hardly of Titanic proportions however after around 80 minutes I’d seen an ample amount and think it should have ended at least 15 minutes earlier, however this is still a fantastic film and I think that you should give it a watch, don’t let scepticism or the precarious subject matter put you off.
The DVD is available from play.com for £4.99, something which I highly recommend.
The special features include: Audio commentary from director David Slade and writer Brian Nelson Audio commentary from director David Slade and actress Ellen Page Deleted and selected scenes 'Controversial Confection' featurette 'Creating Hard Candy' documentary
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A smart, charming teenage girl, Hayley (Ellen Page) probably shouldn't be going to a local ... more
coffee shop to meet Jeff (Patrick Wilson), a 30-something fashion photographer she met on the Internet. But before she knows it, she's mixing drinks at Jeff's pl...
A smart and charming teenage girl Hayley probably shouldn't be going to a local coffee ... more
shop to meet Jeff a 30 something fashion photographer she met on the internet. But before she knows it she's mixing drinks at Jeff's place and stripping off for a...
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![HardCandy [DVD] [2006]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/78477735.jpg "HardCandy [DVD] [2006]")
Jul 20th, 2009
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