Hard Candy
Hard candy is chat room parlance for an attractive minor. In this case, 14-year-old Hayley Stark, who hooks up with 32-year-old photographer Jeff Kohlver online. They meet, go to Jeff’s house and then Hayley turns the tables on Jeff. The premise was interesting but the movie could have been much tighter. Director David Slade, who had previously directed music videos, consistently goes in for close-ups to heighten the claustrophobia and ratchet up the tension. A better script would have helped.
Hard Candy’s realistic setting eventually raises troubling questions about Hayley and ultimately leaves little to choose between her and Jeff.
Ellen Page did well to portray a 14-year-old’s mix of bravado and vulnerability, though that eventually turns out to be an act. Patrick Wilson was smooth enough to keep us guessing and even win our sympathy through most of the movie.
Still, kept thinking all the time that Takashi Miike’s Audition was superior. The horror flick, with its surreal atmosphere, tapped into man’s primal distrust and fear of beautiful women and/or was a feminist revenge fantasy. And nothing in Hard Candy comes close to the excruciating act of vengeance inflicted in Audition.