Review of Hard Candy (2005) by Gimly M — 08 May 2016

Hard Candy is the completely demented and twisted, white-knuckle thriller about a young girl who takes the law into her own hands and turns an online predator into her prey; needless to say, this is some heavy material.

The film follows a young teen named, Hayley, who poses as an even younger girl online to attract the attention of a fashion photographer named, Jeff, who she suspects is a pedophile and murderer; she then subdues and tortures him until he confesses to his alleged crimes.

The real grit of this film is the constant wonder if, Jeff, is telling the truth or not and as the tension ratchets up to unbearable degrees, the film constantly switches perspective from the hunter to the hunted and you're left wondering who to actually root for.

The acting in this movie is outstanding in what is basically a two-person show from Ellen Page, in her breakout role, and Patrick Wilson who is consistently excellent in everything he does. The film's imagery is extremely evocative as the color pallet shifts from lavish reds and greens to cool blues and greys, depending on whose perspective we're currently with, and of course, the obvious parallels to the Little Red Riding Hood story with the not-so-subtle, red hoodie, that Hayley wears.

This is seriously adult-oriented cinema as the discussions and themes get very uncomfortable as the film goes along, culminating in the film's most notorious scene where Hayley performs what she calls, "preventative maintenance" on Jeff that can only be described as an intense scene.

If you're game for some off-the-beaten-path entertainment, you can't really go wrong here, but be forewarned, this film will stick with you and the ending is too good to spoil here!