Hard Candy
Director: David Slade
Starring: Ellen Page, Patrick Wilson, Sandra Oh
Details: US, 103mins, 18.
Hard Candy is an example of how great dialogue can be the driving force and can make a movie travel faster than any MTV snappy editing could. Slade opts for close-ups instead of wide shots and this tight framing allows the audience to get in under the skin of the actors and see the beads of sweat dripping from Wilson's face and to peek into the horror in his eyes. His ambiguous approach to Hayley's motivation is another standout as we are constantly guessing if she is insane or doing the right thing. Hard Candy uses only five actors in the whole film (three of which make up about two minutes screen time) and, like Roman Polanski's Death And The Maiden, most of the action takes place in one house; in fact, Polanski even gets a mention in the dialogue: "Didn't Roman Polanski just win an Oscar?" the subtext being the Chinatown director's own shameful exploits with an underage girl and his future arrest if he sets foot on American soil again. This film is engaging, horrific, beautifully crafted, faultlessly acted and was on for a five star rating right up until the final, silly twenty minutes where Slade and his writer Brian Nelson lose the plot somewhat. Still though, a brave effort
Review by Gavin Burke
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