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Controversial Confection , 31 August 2011
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Hard Candy
on DVD
(2006)
Starring: Ellen Page, Patrick Wilson, Sandra Oh
Director: David Slade
Certificate: 
Watch now: £2.49
A provocative, confrontational, emotional and disturbing film but one that makes for great, if uncomfortable viewing.
This film is unconventional by nature, for one thing there are only 3 main characters with around 5-6 in total one of those 5 is mentioned but only seen in a photograph to give you an idea of how intimate the world created in this film truly is. Which means of course that the whole film rests squarely on the shoulders of the main characters and boy did they pull it off!
The story revolves around a web chat that leads to a meeting in person between 14-year-old Haley expertly played by (Ellen Page) and 32-year-old fashion photographer Jeff (Patrick Wilson). Ellen Page is incredible I can't think of anyone who could have pulled off the role so convincingly! Smart yet vulnerable, she gives a truly remarkable performance for such a young actress. Patrick Wilson also gives a fantastic performance bringing creepy realism and a very human element in this two-man show. But the third main character in this film is the camera itself which acts out it's own part with the choice of angles and cut backs never siding with either character, reluctant to give much away. Director David Slade has done an amazing job with his debut into feature length directing showing us little, implying the worst building up suspense before dashing our assumptions back in our face.
Another thing that is great about this film is that it looks great visually, the digital colourist a man whose work is often over looked, Jean-Clement Soret who worked on '28 days later' adds his own visual style to the movie and with director David Slade’s decision to use a lot of extremely sweaty close ups the colours are very vibrant and add gritty realism to the film. Another man crucial to a films success ‘the editor’ a guy brilliantly named Art Jones unconventionally edited the film using some interesting techniques such as using cut backs to almost the exact same shot and leaving black pauses for several seconds to give an aspect of time passing within the film. You many also notice that the film contains hardly any music about 9 mins total including title and end sequence and not including sound effects. Which means nothing is masked by music even the silences are fascinatingly electric.
Unfortunately the original script by writer/producer Brain Nelson had a lot more dialog than it’s translation into film which is fair enough as otherwise it would have been far too long! At times this leaves the ‘plot’ a little poorly defined and fuzzy around the edges leaving the viewer slightly disorientated, luckily this isn't really a problem due to the focus of the film being the changing dynamics between Haley and Jeff which are brilliantly defined due to excellently well acted and written dialog between the two.
Finally as independent, inventive and provocative films like this often do it’s going to split audiences, you will certainly have a reaction at the very least! But that is the point of making a film about such a controversial and taboo subject. If you want to be challenged this is for you if however if you are easily offended and want your films to have a clear cut protagonist this really isn't going to be for you. There is no answer at the end, what the film does so well is play with your loyalties throughout and blur the edges between ‘victim’ and ‘abuser’. As director David Slade says about his film 'It's not about telling you what to think. It's about making you think for yourself' this really sums up the film which is left wide open to interpretation you will certainly have an opinion by the end. Definitely worth a rent a truly gripping psychological thriller which kept me interested throughout.
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