Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with J-Man, still not understanding which festival he's attending, who saw HARD CANDY. I, too, think the movie is great. The two leads, including Kitty Pryde, are fantastic. However, I'd suggest you see this movie completely cold turkey. No trailers, no reviews. Just watch the story unfold. I was lucky enough to see it that way and I can't imagine having certain imagery or plot revealed to me before seeing the film. If you can't help yourself, here's J-Man with a spoiler-ish review. Enjoy!!!
J-Man checking in with one last review from the Austin Film Festival before I head back to wet, windy Seattle.
HARD CANDY
Until it goes completely bugfuck at the home stretch, David Slade's film is nothing short of a psychological masterwork. After semi-steamy netchat, Jeff (Patrick Wilson), a 32 year-old photographer, and Hayley (Ellen Page), 14 year-old honor student, agree to meet at a coffee shop. They go back to his place, for booze and talk; he winds up hogtied to a chair being interrogated about pedophilia and missing girls.
The brilliance of Brian Nelson's script -- and, it is brilliant -- is that as this girl takes her steps exacting private (no pun intended) justice -- "This is what they should be teaching girlscouts" -- we're laughing and squirming, equal measures. We root for Hayley, to a degree, and we're kind of dumbstruck by her tunnel-visioned guided-missile dogged determination to do what it is she's come here to do. But, same as you want to see revenge on this child molester representing all child molesters, we'd like to see the tables turned. Strictly in a cat-and-mouse sense. This guy goes through hell and back; she takes a bump on the head. Not fair. Hayley has two sides: wide-eyed misleading innocense, and sarcastic vigilante, with zero gray area. Which became a problem for me. As the film played, she seemed just a little too self-aware and prepared. And, dare I say it, spoiled brat. I don't know if I was supposed to, but when Jeff was yet again bound to a chair and Hayley had plastic wrap over his face, I wanted him to break free and physically defend himself somehow.
The film is well-paced and shot. The dialogue is sharp and perceptive, especially during the first two acts: "When a kid does something flirtatious, you ignore it, you do not encourage it." And, okay, so it goes off the deep end; I didn't buy the final scene between these two characters for a second. One. Second. It may remain true to who these people are, where they would end up after that long draining afternoon, but couldn't there have been another way to resolve this whole messy conflict without a hyperbolic slow-motion shot? Oh, and sidenote... what the hell is Sandra Oh doing in this?
The leads are pretty amazing, and play off each other extremely well. HARD CANDY is a memorable, if flawed, two character piece.
