Plot: 14-year-old Hayley (Ellen Page) meets 32-year-old photographer Jeff (Patrick Wilson) after chatting with him on the internet. She goes to his house and drugs him. Suspecting him to be a pedophile and murderer, she threatens to expose him.
Review: This is probably one of the most disturbing and screwed up movies I've seen in a long time.
What I like about the film's plot is that it takes a scenario that we've seen many times before and turns it around into a completely different direction. The film opens and we see a chat room. And then we see Hayley meeting Jeff. We expect this to be the film where a young girl becomes a victim an deals with the aftermath of the trauma. But it doesn't.
Hard Candy takes that premise and shreds to pieces and come up with something new. We would never expect to see a pedophile being tortured and brutalized. In fact, at some points in the film, we have sympathy for the supposed pedophile, which is really surprising once you think about it. You really start wonder who the real victim is in all of this.
The film's strongest point is the amazing acting. Patrick Wilson is terrific as Jeff. Even though he is a supposed pedophile, we manage to have sympathy when Hayley is after him. That sympathy is because of the brilliant writers and Patrick Wilson's performance. His desperation in the scenario is difficult to watch.
As brilliant as Patrick Wilson is, I don't think he's the film's real star. The real star is Ellen Page. When I watched Juno in theatres a few years ago, I thought Ellen Page was a great comedic actress. But I had no idea that she would be able to pull off this kind of role and performance. And this came out two years before Juno did. Hayley is obsessed with exposing Jeff and her obsession completely drives her. Ellen Page's performance gave me chills. Whether she said something or gave a certain look, a chill went my spine a few times in this. There are very few times that actors are able to show what kind of range they have. I'm happy Ellen Page was able to show us how talented she really is.
The cast is very small and I think that's another aspect that makes the film work. The intimacy of a small cast adds to the intensity of the situation and everything that is happening in the film.
I think Hard Candy is a terrific film. Well-acted, written and directed. Yet it's very disturbing, chilling and shocking. I don't know how many times people can watch this. I think it's one of those movies you can only bare to watch once, but you'll still remember it.
Rating: 4.5/5
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