Hard Candy film review

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HARD CANDY

Due to its subject matter - internet grooming of young girls - Hard Candy has picked up a reputation as one of the year's more controversial films. And while it is true that the topic is certainly of the moment, the final product is a disappointment: it's a title that lacks the suspense of Misery, the film it most clearly apes, or the impact of LIE, which is arguably the best and most powerful picture to deal with child molestation in recent years.

Jeff (Patrick Wilson) is a successful photographer in his thirties who at the beginning of the film meets the much younger Hayley (Ellen Page, recently seen in the third X-Men instalment) in a coffee shop. A precocious fourteen-year-old, Ellen has been communicating online with Jeff for some time, with their conversations growing increasingly explicit.

Jeff takes Hayley back to his place, but soon finds the tables turned once Hayley drugs him, ties him up and - in the film's most talked about scene - threatens him with genital mutilation. A one-woman vigilante force, she may or may not be acting for totally sane reasons to do with the previous disappearance of another young friend of hers.

The result is a talkative two-hander which largely takes place in the confined enclosure of Jeff's apartment, and which is presumably meant to tackle head on one of modern society's most distressing phenomena. The screenplay feels strongly like a stage piece (imagine a less punchy version of David Mamet's Oleanna), and while first-time helmer David Slade's direction is crisp and precisely photographed, there is something too earnest about the message for it to be really successful.

Despite the mini-hype surrounding Hard Candy, at heart it is not much more than a good festival film which doesn't really provide any concrete answers to the muddled questions it asks. This may be to do with the confusing characters traits the main protagonists are given - Hayley clearly acts in a deranged way - but is also because of the fact that it doesn't know whether it is a thriller, think-piece or strident social commentary. Because it falls between all three, and fails to really be any of them, the talk surrounding the film is little more than a burst of hot air.

Paul Hurley