“Hard Candy” Directed by David Slade Lions
Gate Films
In the age of MySpace, Facebook and instant messaging, the
online predator has replaced the friendly stranger with candy at
the local park as the scourge of every parent’s nightmares.
With the click of a button, young boys and girls can quickly be
manipulated into meeting these individuals. But what would happen
if a girl turned the tables on her attacker? This is the premise of
“Hard Candy,” director David Slade’s disturbing,
intensely entertaining thriller.
The film follows the story of 14-year-old Hayley (the magnetic
Ellen Page), who begins the film chatting online with 30-something
photographer Jeff (“Angels In America’s” Patrick
Wilson), and decides to meet up with him for coffee. The film
begins with this darkly humorous and sexualized instant message
conversation, which in many ways foreshadows the film’s
overall mood.
To reveal any more of the plot beyond this point would be to do
a disservice. “Hard Candy” is the sort of film that
must be seen while knowing as little about it as possible.
Brian Nelson’s script is filled with whip-smart dialogue,
mostly delivered by Page. If Page is not the hottest young actress
in Hollywood after this film and her upcoming turn as Shadowcat in
this summer’s “X-Men 3,” it will be as shocking
as “Hard Candy” itself. Page anchors “Hard
Candy” around her mysterious personality and schemes. Her
role takes some suspension of disbelief (Hayley talks at times like
a Harvard grad who went to Noam Chomsky’s office hours), but
the way in which Page carries herself in the film, constantly
playing herself off of Wilson and misdirecting both him and the
audience with her actions and emotions, is astounding.
Wilson, as the sexual deviant thrust into an unexpected
situation, also shines. His attempts to justify his actions flesh
him out and make him into more than a simple predator.
From an aesthetic standpoint, the film is also finely executed.
Along with the rapid-fire script filled with psychological
observations, some of Slade’s visual choices are particularly
striking. He makes effective use of a handheld camera, employing
one during particularly frenetic shots of Hayley searching through
drawers, lending a disorienting and panicked quality to the
happenings on-screen.
“Hard Candy” also makes some of the most effective
use of sound in recent memory. It is a testament to effective,
creative filmmaking when a film can inspire audiences to scream,
squirm and glance away without actually showing what’s
happening. Many thrillers and horror movies could benefit from this
psychological form of terror, which stays with viewers far
longer.
Still, some may complain that the film is unrealistic with
respect to its dialogue and outlandish situations. This, however,
would be to miss just what “Hard Candy” is ““ a
taut, edge-of-your-seat thriller that delivers one of the most
harrowing stories to hit the screen this year.
“”mdash; Mark Humphrey E-mail Humphrey at
[email protected].