Monday, June 19, 2006

 
So, "Hard Candy".



It is an incredibly difficult film to write about without giving away spoilers, and as I most definitely do not want to do that, I will be necessarily vague.

Two people meet in an Internet chatroom. They indulge in mild flirting and innuendo. The two people agree to meet. We discover that the two people are a 14 year old schoolgirl (Hayley) and a thirtysomething male photographer (Jeff). More innuendo. Then Hayley agrees to go back to Jeff's house to listen to a Goldfrapp bootleg. Then... Good God!

That is practically all you are going to get from me. See it for yourself.

I thought that "Hard Candy" is an incredibly provocative, horrifying, gut wrenching, sickening and brilliant piece of work. It is practically a two hander (Ellen Page and Patrick Wilson are both fantastic), and would have worked brilliantly as a stage play, which perhaps explains why sometimes the script drifts into wordiness. Or is that just me picking hairs? I like the way that the sympathies of the audience drift between the two protagonists. Well, it did for me. It works as a horror film. It works as a commentary on the whole Internet chatroom phenomena and the dangers thereof. It is just a brilliant film and I want to see it again.

That was difficult to write. I am not feeling too well. I went back to work today. I think that is the reason.

I am going to bed. I will not be here tomorrow. England versus Sweden, then "Lost". Got to be done.

Back Wednesday.

Comments:
It sounds kinda interesting. I think I saw a trailer on telly that gave away one of the big twists. It actually made me want to watch it more.

My initial assumption was... Well, the obvious and if I read the trailer right the relationship isn't quite what you'd expect. Man, this being vague is hard.

However, I don't enjoy horror films and don't particularly like paying money to be scared or repulsed so I think I'll give it a miss.
 
I saw some preamble for it months ago and I've been waiting patiently ever since. Can't wait.
 
The film reviewer on our provincial news station loved that film. It didn't play where I live, so I'll have to wait for it on DVD.
 
I saw it and really liked it, too. It was really horrifying at times, without being visually grotesque - a refreshing change from the "can you top this" slasher film mentality. Thankfully they got really brilliant actors who could pull it off.
 
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