I highly recommend seeing this film, it is well acted, directed, shot, the story is relevant, and while the believability is very close to crossing the line - it stays on the right side, in my opinion for a great finish. Hard Candy is movie that carries tension scene to scene, and while there are peaks and valleys throughout, there is an overall crescendo all the way to the end that I have to applaud. The film also has that ability to make you look twice at what is going on around you in the world.
**spoiler alert**
**spoiler alert**
The film opens with an instant message online conversation going back and forth between 2 unseen people. It seems flirty and light, and they finally agree to meet at a coffee shop. Hayley (Page) is 14 year old girl whose appearance is somewhat boyish looking and "innocent", but seems years older by her dialogue and intelligence. Jeff (Wilson) is a handsome, well dressed, bookish looking type who we learn is a photographer. They continue their mundane conversation about her reading and music tastes, at which point Jeff mentions having a recording of certain song, which he states he will email to her. Hayley seems a bit eager to want to go to his place to listen it. Within about ten minutes of the films opening, Hayley is in Jeff's car on the way to his house, where they will spend the remainder of the movie.
After some back and forth flirting and conversation about Jeff being a photographer, Hayley makes screwdrivers for both of them, the movie seems headed for a certain bad outcome - but then the rug gets pulled out from under the audience. Jeff passes out from being drugged, to which he awakens tied to a chair and now subject to aggressive questioning and psychological torture by Hayley about being a sexual predator, specifically in relation to the disappearance of another teen girl named Donna Mauer (that we assume Hayley knows). She even goes so far as to make Jeff believe she is going to castrate him by placing an ice bag on his genitals, while showing him a video of a castration while he is prone and restrained - being unable to see or sense what be happening. It was disturbing to watch, I must note.
Jeff maintains his innocence for quite awhile, enough to have you believe that maybe Hayley is crazy, until she eventually discovers a secret safe in his floor full of explicit pictures of underage girls. She now takes the stance that Jeff should kill himself or she will expose him to his friends and to the world. She says that this will lead to him going to jail, and likely be brutalized for being a child molester. I won't ruin how the end plays out here.
Page, even though she was 18 at the time of the filming, still came off as the perfect mix as a very young teen but with the mindset of an adult, in both physical appearance and line delivery. Wilson was able appear a seemingly innocent person, yet, physically we see facial nuances and behaviors of a predator lurking beneath. Again, I cannot say enough good things about their performances considering this was a 2 person movie, only. The direction and editing really created superior mood and atmosphere throughout. It was subtle, in that you cannot point to one exact thing, but the lighting and camera angles in Jeff's house at any time never let the tension subside, even as the movie is coming to a close.
My only real criticism of Hard Candy comes from the earlier mentioned believablity factor - and that lies in the fact that Jeff was able to get free of his restraints at several different moments in which Hayley had to re-subdue him. It just seemed an ever so slight stretch for the smaller Hayley to be able to fight Jeff in the manner which it unfolds. Using the idea that "with the adrenaline flowing" people are capable of almost anything, then there are no flaws in the story.
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