Hard Candy (a movie review)

It has been a few days now since I started bumming around. But who can blame me? I just graduated. Being in school for almost two decades, I don’t think that’s too much to ask.

However, even if I am relishing my moments of unemployment, I’m not entirely being useless. I store myself with knowledge from the things that school life deprived me. I’ve been reading novels and magazines, but somehow those things require a little bit of work. Because you have to change positions every now and then, you have to flip from page to page. Same thing is true with gallivanting all over the city, in malls and thrift shops, because it requires, well, moving.

But don’t get me wrong. I love doing those things. But I sometimes prefer the lazy way of gaining knowledge: watching a movie. Lazy might be a negative way of describing it, but I don’t mean it that way, nor am I saying that people who watch films are lazy. It’s lazy because you just lie down in front of my laptop and let the story unfold before your eyes.

Anyway, I was looking through the long compendium of movie files in my external drive and I stumbled upon this movie that I’ve planned to watch a long time ago but was not able to do so because I had student duties. The title is “Hard Candy.” Before I get on with my review, here are the real reasons why I wanted to watch it. First, Ellen Page is in it. After Juno, I swore to grab every opportunity to watch a movie that she stars in. And second, Ellen Page is in it.

Ellen Page in Hard Candy. Handsome?

Hard Candy (2005) is about a precocious fourteen year old girl named Hayley Stark (Ellen Page) who meets up with a guy she met on the Internet, Jeff Kohlver (Patrick Allen), a thirty-two year old photographer.

Despite the age difference, the two agrees to meet up and make out. When they finally met in a coffee shop, the two started flirting with each other, not really caring about their age difference.

When Jeff brings Hayley to his house, what started out as a something seemingly romantic has turned into a terrifying scenario involving Jeff being tied up on a table, half naked, and ready castrated by an amateur surgeon that Hayley has suddenly become.

As the story progresses, secrets are revealed putting Jeff in a hopeless situation. Hayley refuses to budge from whatever desperate bargain or bribe from Jeff. Giving only two ends, unending suffering, or a tragic end to it.

The gore was sufficient. It has an unusual mix of horror and delight. The plot is unpredictable. The impressive use of color transition in depicting the bipolarity of Hayley’s character is commendable. Depicting the two main characters to be despicable but someone you will still pity was not an easy task, but it was surprisingly accomplished.

Overall, I give it a 3.5/5. It would’ve been a four if I did not know beforehand that (WARNING! Spoiler alert) his balls will really be cut off and if he showed even just a hint of struggle in walking after losing two very important parts of his manhood.

Bloody and Chunky shot

Something to keenly watch out for: the Little-Red-Riding-Hood look of Hayley could mean something. A reference to the real character of the fairy tale girl, maybe? (wink) But don’t trust me, I’m not an expert.

red hoodie