Hard Candy

Alright, these days I write for The Siskiyou so I'm doing like one review a week. Though I've already done one this week I am compelled to do another in honor a movie I just watched that was too good to pass up. Hard Candy, starring Ellen Page and Patrick Wilson as Hayley and Jeff, respectively, is unlike any movie I've seen in a long time, and possibly ever. For starters, it stars the two of them almost exclusively. There's a coffee shop attendant at the opening, a three minute cameo by Sandra Oh, and one other woman right at the end. That's five, count them five, people; just imagine the credits. It doesn't even matter, in fact the scarcity of players only adds to the wonder that is this movie, especially because of the two central characters the one who must really carry the film is 18 year old Page with the greatest young performance since Whale Rider.
You may have heard the plot before but I'll sum up the intro for anybody in the dark. Jeff is in his thirties and a photographer. Hayley is fourteen (and actually looks it for once in cinema history) and she spends her time reading and chatting online with Jeff. The movie opens with the two of them deciding, via chatroom, that they are going to meet at a local coffee chop. One thing leads to another and before you know it they're back at Jeff's house where Hayley insists on making the screwdrivers herself and posing for Jeff like one of his various teenage girl models who's pictures adorn his walls. It is at this point that act two begins as the roles of predator and prey are abruptly switched.
I am ready to start it over and watch the whole thing again right this very second, so great was the performance by Page. I'm sure it probably won't happen but I think she deserves an Oscar nomination at least. Her's is a role that so many could have played in an annoying and bratty way, but she'd not annoying and she's not a little brat. She's a smart, ruthless, vindictive, person who knows exactly what she is going to do and how she's going to do it. Like a younger version of The Bride or something similar, she was stone cold and pitch perfect. Wilson mustn't be ignored however, he plays the opposite of Page's scary but good young girl, with his sincere denials of his actions as the charming but evil pedophile.
Do not be afraid for content, besides talk of terrible deeds, a handful of expletives, and one particularly groan inducing amateur surgical procedure that thankfully isn't shown, there's nothing to be weary of. Even so, it's not Sunday family movie night material if you know what I mean. The long and the short of is this: it's intriguing in an original way which is something to be grateful for these days. It's well written, sharply acted, and beautifully shot. It doesn't force feed the audience a bunch of rehashed ideas, it thrills and horrifies in all the right ways, and it's over before you become too familiar with it.

A-