Hard Candy
2005
Starring: Ellen Page, Patrick Wilson, Sandra Oh, Odessa Rae, Gilbert John
Director: David Slade
Runtime: 104 Minutes
Distributor: Lionsgate
Rating: R
Now that Ellen Page has made such a sensational splash in this years little Indie that could, Juno, this 2005 film that quietly slipped under the radar might get a little retro traction as something more than a curiosity. If it does, it is no more than it deserves as this tightly wound thriller has enough tricks up its sleeve to shock and surprise with an audacity that is likely to catch more than a few people off guard.
The plot taps directly into the hyper-aware, ultra paranoid world of the parent confronted with the vast expanse of cyberspace, where potential predators lurk behind every seemingly innocent url. Ellen Page’s Hayley is a streetwise 14-year-old, who has an online romance brewing with Patrick Wilson’s much older Jeff. After meeting for the first time in a coffee shop, photographer Jeff takes her back to his apartment to burn some music. Already a sick sense of dread is bubbling at the back of the mind and director David Slade knows it and plays with it to the full. Once inside Jeff’s apartment the safe familiar medium shot is banished from the picture and Slade subjects us to a barrage of sweaty reverse shots and suffocating close ups. It’s a deliberately uncomfortable invasion of personal space. As Hayley begins to relax the flirting slowly builds the relentless, forced intimacy and has you climbing the walls for an escape.
Then everything is turned on its head. Jeff collapses and awakens to find himself tied to a chair with a very angry and purposeful young girl holding him captive. Convinced that he is some kind of sicko, she begins to level charges at him, not the least of which is that of being responsible for the recent disappearance of a local girl. What plays out is a creepy game of psychological cat and mouse that evokes feelings of Death and The Maiden amongst others. But it is the distinct lack of any definitive tells that make much of Hard Candy so ambiguous. Of course your sympathies instinctively pledge allegiance to Hayley. After all what business does a grown man have inviting 14-year-old girls to his home? But when Jeff counters with the argument that his job is based around finding and shooting young girls and turning them into legitimate models and that he has carefully deflected all of Hayley’s flirtatious behavior, you begin to wonder whether Hayley might have gotten it all wrong.
Its premise is both fascinatingly complex and alarmingly simple at the same time, and Slade’s excellent camera work turns the basic apartment location into a prison, not just for Jeff but for the viewer, too. Wilson’s thespian stage training serves him well, tasked with carrying much of this dialog driven story. But the real revelation here is Ellen Page. Famous now, but almost completely unknown here, she imbues Hayley with a confidence and a venom that allows the teen to radiate a white-hot menace.
Blessed with excellent performances and skillful direction, Hard Candy’s weaknesses come courtesy of a somewhat flawed script. Brian Nelson is clearly hoping that the strong nature of the emotionally loaded subject matter with cover up some pretty sizable holes in the story. If Jeff is really behind the local girl’s disappearance, as Hayley suspects, how has she managed to track him down when the police apparently couldn’t?
Slade’s story is also more than a little lopsided. Large chunks of the film are overwritten, too drawn out, and they lose their initial impact – not least of which is the lengthy interrogation of Jeff, and the film’s wince inducing crucial scene, which will have every male audience member swiftly crossing his legs. Too preoccupied with the situation he has dreamt up, Slade forgets to make us care for the people playing it out. Jeff seems affable enough, but far too much of this is his own dumb fault for him to be innocent. And while Hayley’s cause might appear to be a righteous one, it is clear that she certainly doesn’t play with the full deck and ultimately neither character is likable and deserving of your investment.
Hard Candy is an ambitious little film with an impressive bag of tricks, but they just barely serve to mask a story that at times gets away from itself and turns to contrivance and throwaway support characters to act as plot devices in order to solve its problems. There is a great deal on display here to be impressed with – not the least of which is Ellen Page who’s stock continues to rise – but the film is one that’s strong impact fades the more you sit down and really think about it.
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