Review of Candy (2013) by Grant S — 15 Apr 2011

OK, so the subject matter has been played out again and again. People struggling to make it through life, all wrapped up in drug use, can't shake it, affects their daily lives and others' as well and it all comes to some massive conclusion at the end; positive or negative is irrelevant.

Candy is like those movies... except it has some very good acting. You totally see Heath Ledger getting inside of his performance here. He is amazing, absorbing in his role as a heroin-abusing poet who falls in love with a charming young artist played by Abbie Cornish.

The romance the two share is enchanting is how they interact with each other as well as how they block out everyone else. Watching the two of them is like watching a train wreck: it is painful yet energizing as well.

They go through fun happy times and they fall through the most dreadful of times all while sliding along with heroin as the driver. Simply fabulous chemistry between these two. And, yet another character role that Ledger gets very much into and makes you wonder if he got too deep with this one as well.

Also, the narration that jumps in and out of the movie is not distracting but more informing if you will, performed by both Ledger and Cornish's characters, almost as if they are watching their lives as it plays out for us the viewer.

Geoffrey Rush is classically good. Not too overwhelming when he is on screen but still commands your attention. A well done role for him. This movie may seem like an Australian Requiem for a Dream, but what is so bad about that.

That was a great flick as well. The acting and script drive this story, one you have heard and seen before, but never more enjoyable or painful as Candy.