Hard Candy (2005)

Director:

David Slade

Writer (WGA):

Brian Nelson (written by)

Release Date:

14 April 2006 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

Strangers shouldn't talk to little girls.

Plot:

A mature 14-year old girl meets a charming 32-year old photographer on the Internet. Suspecting that he is a pedophile, she goes to his home in an attempt to expose him.

Plot Keywords:

Photographer | Internet | Chatting | Torture | Chair

Awards:

5 wins & 6 nominations

Cast

Patrick Wilson	...	Jeff Kohlver
Ellen Page	...	Hayley Stark
Sandra Oh	...	Judy Tokuda
Odessa Rae	...	Janelle Rogers (as Jennifer Holmes)
G.J. Echternkamp	...	Nighthawks Clerk (as Gilbert John)

Also Known As:

Dulce venganza (Venezuela) [es]
Dur à croquer (Canada: French title) [fr]
Hard Candy (Italy) (DVD title) [it]
Hard Candy (Argentina) [es]
Hard Candy (France) [fr]
Hard Candy (Denmark) [da]
Lolipop (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]
Menina Má.Com (Brazil) [pt]
Stimeno paihnidi (Greece) [el]

MPAA:

Rated R for disturbing violent and aberrant sexual content involving a teen, and for language.

Runtime:

104 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

UK:18 | Ireland:18 | Australia:R | Canada:16+ (Quebec) | Canada:18A (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba/Ontario) | Singapore:M18 | Germany:18 | New Zealand:R18 | China:(Banned) | Malaysia:(Banned) | Indonesia:Dewasa | Taiwan:R-18 | Philippines:R-18 | Sweden:15 | France:-16 | Hungary:18 | Brazil:16 | Norway:15 | Portugal:M/16 | Romania:I.C.-14 | Finland:K-15 | USA:R (certificate #41243) | Japan:R-15 | Chile:18 | Italy:VM18 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Arclight Cinemas - 6360 W. Sunset Blvd., Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Vulcan Productions

Trivia:

The inspiration comes from Japan. Producer David Higgins had read reports of Japanese schoolgirls ambushing men who surfed the Internet for underage dates and later developed the story.

Goofs:

Continuity: Near the end of the film, the girl is shown having trouble heaving the unconscious body of the man across the floor. The next time we see the man, he is standing upright on a chair with a noose around his neck. There is no way to stand an unconscious man up on a chair, and the girl was clearly not strong enough to force him onto the chair were he awake. Getting the man into this position is left unexplained presumably because it would be impossible.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Hayley Stark: Mmm. This is soo good. I want more.
Jeff Kohlver: Don't get greedy.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Indie Sex: Teens (2007) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Freak

worth seeing

I just screened this film at LGF last night. I was quite intrigued for the first forty minutes. Then it all kind of fell apart for me. In it's best moments this film explores the complexities of vengeance and psychology. It tries to be clever by pulling a role reversal -- but this eventually wears thin and the dialog becomes didactic and contrived. I still think it is worth seeing for the strength of the leads alone. Patrick Wilson does a fine job as a "suspected" pedophile. He elicits both sympathy and disgust. Ellen Page as the young girl is absolutely fantastic. Her performance is brilliant and even frightening at times. She's good even when the script can't match her talent. I look forward to seeing her in many films to come. Finally a young actress who is more than just a pretty face -- I'm so tired of the Natalie Portmans, the Hillary Duffs, and the Jessica Albas of the world. Good luck with your career Ms. Page.

All in all, Hard Candy is worth seeing. Maybe I'm just a sucker for movies with tiny casts and realtime pacing. But there are some genuinely suspenseful moments in the film, although in the hands of lesser actors these scenes would disintegrate. And though I was annoyed by the contrivances and implausibilities of the script, I found myself the next day thinking about some of the issues raised therein.

At times Hard Candy reminded me of Polanski's Death and the Maiden, though H.C. is nowhere near as good. Ellen Page's Haley character is similar to Sigourney Weaver's character in the Polanski film. Both women are terrifying through the cold precision of their revenge. The problem with the Haley character is that she would have to be supernatural to accomplish the things she does in this film. And of course if she was supernatural, we'd have a completely different film on our hands -- High Plains Drifter.