Hard Candy Review
by Steve Rhodes (Steve DOT Rhodes AT InternetReviews DOT com)April 10th, 2006
HARD CANDY
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2006 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ***
For all of you guys who've ever fanaticized about hooking up with an underage girl in an internet chat room, HARD CANDY, a smart thriller by director David Slade, provides a strong antidote to your urges. The director said at our screening that he wanted the film to be "real and not exploitational" and that he saw it as "a polemic film that hands the reins over to the audience." He manages to accomplish these goals quite skillfully, but the film may be a bit much for the squeamish. In some ways, it almost feels like FATAL ATTRACTION updated for the internet age.
It all starts seemingly innocent, which means, of course, not innocent at all. We watch a computer screen as two unseen friends flirt with instant messages within the confines of some unspecified chat room. Eventually they agree to meet for coffee.
The petite and attractive Hayley Stark has an addiction -- chocolate. Her new friend Jeff Kohlver is happy to attend to her every want from chocolate to a new T-shirt. The almost twenty year difference in their respective ages might not matter if the wise-beyond-her-years Hayley weren't just fourteen. But then -- they are just talking.
Did I mention yet the poster for a missing girl named Donna Maurer that is shown briefly above their table? If you think that might be an omen, you'd be right.
What really makes this two-person drama sizzle is the casting. Patrick Wilson (Raoul from THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA) plays Jeff, a soft-spoken photographer of teenage girls, whose fully clothed pictures decorate the walls of his small house where almost all of the story is set. Ellen Page (Kitty Pryde/Shadowcat in the upcoming X-MEN: THE LAST STAND) plays Hayley, an honor student who is a lot smarter that her initial naïveté might lead you to believe. The actors' two respective characters engage in a battle of wits and wills. But the bottom line is that Page steals one scene after another from Wilson, while her character also quickly gets the upper hand.
In a classic "don't go there" moment, Hayley is invited by Jeff to leave the coffee shop and head to his house. Although he claims charmingly that "I am very aware of the legal limits," you immediately suspect that his character wouldn't honor any boundary unless he thought he might be caught.
Brian Nelson's script crafts characters that are chillingly genuine, and Jo Willems's cinematography, with it's obsession with close-ups of eyes, draw us into the terror. If you want to escape mentally, while still staying in your seat, good luck!
Our packed theater was filled with frequent nervous laughter, mainly female. This isn't a film that will send most guys into giggles. The movie has a strong and positive appeal to both sexes, but I suspect the reactions to the movie will differ by gender. To say more would just give too much away, which I refuse to do, even if other critics and probably the film's trailers will reveal too much. This much I can say. After watching HARD CANDY, you'll be wanting to see Page's next performance. She's a real talent who brings a strong and compelling presence to the screen.
HARD CANDY runs a little long at 1:43. It is rated R for "disturbing violent and aberrant sexual content involving a teen, and for language" and would be acceptable for older teenagers.
The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, April 28, 2006. In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the Camera Cinemas. The movie was shown recently at the Camera Cinema Club (http://www.cameracinemas.com) of Campbell and San Jose.
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