Hard Candy
Director: David Slade
With: Patrick Wilson, Ellen Page
Runtime: 103 min
Cinema loves controversy as the most taboo subjects often make for the most engaging films. Paedophilia is no exception and Hollywood has not remained silent, addressing the subject in films like 2004’s The Woodsman.
Hard Candy however, has a new lens for the mass hysteria. The title comes from internet chat- room slang for a young girl, and this film begins with 32 year old Jeff and a 14 year old teen called Hayley arranging to ‘hook up’. The audience follows their meeting with dread as the two banter and flirt their way back to Jeff’s apartment. It is here where the tables are turned, as it becomes clear that Hayley’s own agenda makes her far less innocent than she first appeared. From here on, the plot gives way to a fascinating and sickening character piece, as Jeff and Hayley’s deadly cat-and-mouse game unfolds and the boundaries between predator and prey are blurred beyond all recognition.
The film lives and dies by the performances of its two key characters, and it is the performances of its two relative unknowns which make it the success that it is. Ellen Page is the young actress to whom I must dedicate the most fulsome praise. Her explosive performance is utterly terrifying, and Hayley’s fires of madness illuminate the film. She dominates the screen in her first major breakout role, walking the tightrope between a naive innocent and a furious ball of vengeance. However, Wilson should not be forgotten either. He is also brilliant - always ambiguous in his performance, hiding from the audience the true nature and extent of his sexual predilections. As the characters wrestle for control, our sympathies fluctuate between the two. The acting is unforgettable, and almost lifts Hard Candy beyond criticism.
Hard Candy is not a conventional thriller. It relies less on its thrills and spills, and trades out-and-out ‘excitement’ for a gnawing claustrophobia and a near-hysterical tension. This trade-off doesn’t make it boring, but it is perhaps a minor flaw of the narrative that it is so simply and conventionally structured. Hard Candy’s weakness comes from the fact that it is actually a little soft (at least narratively speaking). It doesn’t tell a story, more than a few haunting set pieces, and the ending is something of an anticlimax. Hard Candy remains an admirable and remarkable thriller which tackles a very dangerous taboo subject with gusto and power, but as a film is an intense, gruesome ordeal.
Reviewed by
Rob Perkins
