Hard Candy
Studio: Lions Gate Releasing
Rated: R
Cast: Ellen Page, Patrick Wilson
Director: David Slade
Screenwriter: Brian Nelson
WorkNameSort: Hard Candy
Our Rating: 3.00
As seen at the recent Florida Film Festival, director David Slade’s provocative psychodrama has a grabber of a setup that indicates a new Todd Solondz may have arrived. A 32-year-old photographer hooks up with a precocious 14-year-old he’s met online; they then flash bedroom eyes at each other for a disturbingly prolonged period, keeping us in a state of perpetual squeamishness that they might actually, you know, do it. Meanwhile, the short haircut sported by actress Ellen Page only underlines her character’s jeopardized innocence. Or not: As Page’s not-so-naive Hayley begins to assert herself, Extremities-style, Hard Candy enters a spiral of revelation and revenge ‘ one that might have worked better on the stage than the screen, where the story’s claustrophobia and increasingly unwieldy plot twists gradually overwhelm the hefty talents of the two leads. Still, what an intro. (R; opens Friday, April 28, at Enzian Theater, 407-629-0054)
This article appears in Apr 26 – May 2, 2006.