Review of Hard Candy (2006) by Nick P — 21 Jun 2014
Hard Candy stars Ellen Page and Patrick Wilson who play a young teenage girl and an older, but handsome man, respectively. Jeff schedules a plan to meet this anonymous woman he'd been chatting to online. At a shop, with close shots, he makes eye contact with Hayley, a young teenager. They realize that they were speaking to each other online and pick up a flirtatious chat. Already, the audience feels uncomfortable because of the way the discussion is between an adult man and a minor, who acts more mature than she is as Jeff says "You look older than you are and you certainly act older than you are".
They go to his place and that's where everything horrific happens. The amount of slow-paced direction Hard Candy has might turn some people off, understandably. But when you look at the big picture, the entire ordeal is eerie. A man picking up a girl he met over the internet and goes back to his place, only this time the tables are turned.
Page gives a stunning, Oscar-worthy performance as the mysterious Hayley. She takes up as the typical innocence a teenage girl would have and twists it around like a knife in the back. Wilson is also solid, as he usually is in films but he never gives himself that extra POW.
This may turn some off due to the subject and slow movements, but Hard Candy is a look of kidnapping and pedophilia with an unsuspecting turn.
This review of Hard Candy (2006) was written by Nick P on 21 Jun 2014.
Hard Candy has generally received positive reviews.
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