Saturday 12 April 2014

Review: Hard Candy (2005)

Hard Candy
IMDB rate: 7,2
Genre: Thriller, Torture

Probably the third time that i watched Hard Candy. The first time I watched it I disliked it a bit, it's a very slow movie. Now, a few years later I'm still a bit annoyed by the slowness of it but I do like the story. It's very interesting. This will be a short review I think.


After three weeks of chatting with the thirty-two year old photographer Jeff Kohlver over the Internet, fourteen year old Hayley Stark meets him in the Nighthawks coffee show. Hayley flirts with him in spite of the age difference and proposes to go to his house. Once there, she prepares a screwdriver for them and Jeff passes out. When he awakes, he is tied up to a chair, and Hayley accuses him of pedophilia. Jeff denies the accusation, and Hayley begins to torture him in a cat and mouse game.

Since I first watched it I started to grow a slight disliking of Ellen Page and Patrick Wilson, and I never actually figured why I hated them, but when I watched it again last week I knew why. They are both excellent actors in this movie. Patrick Wilson, first a likable man who apparently likes little children. Ellen Page, a girl who isn't as innocent as she looks. Ellen Page's role is a bit annoying, but it's very effective and well, it's obviously acted amazingly since I started disliking her because of this movie. 

What's brilliant about this movie is the way the girl tortures the guy. It's mostly mental but when things get physical it's getting real tough. Even though you don't see anything of it, it's kinda nasty even to think about it.

It's not a movie that people like easily. Ellen Page's character is a smart young girl, she is excellent at mentally torturing the guy. She's definitely not a very likable character, but still her motives are very clear. Patrick Wilson's character is a charming man, of course you have your questions with their whole meet up in his case, it's kinda pedophile-like, even though he doesn't seem to be a pedophile 'type'. Her accusations aren't too weird since he also agreed on meeting up with her, but in the entire movie you're still not entirely sure if he's indeed a pedophile. The ending of this movie is simple, but very effective and even slightly shocking.


Hard Candy is a messed up movie, but still awesome in it's own way. The acting is incredibly good. The budget of this movie was very low but it's hardly noticeable. I liked the movie a lot. It's definitely not what I expected at first.

My personal rate: 8/10

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