Hard Candy (film)

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Hard Candy

movie poster featuring Ellen Page as bait in an oversized bear trap.
Directed by David Slade
Produced by Paul G. Allen
Rosanne Korenberg
Written by Brian Nelson
Starring Ellen Page
Patrick Wilson
Sandra Oh
Music by Molly Nyman
Harry Escott
Cinematography Jo Willems
Editing by Art Jones
Distributed by Lions Gate Entertainment
Release date(s) April 14, 2006 (USA)
Language English
Budget $1,000,000 (est.)
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Hard Candy is a 2005 film about Hayley Stark, a 14-year-old girl who meets Jeff, a 32-year-old photographer who might be a sexual predator. The two first get to know each other on the Internet before meeting in person at a local coffee shop, which results in a trip to Jeff's home; however, Jeff soon learns that Hayley is not as innocent as she appears. The title "Hard Candy" comes from the internet slang for an under-aged girl. [1]

It is British director David Slade's first feature film, having previously worked mostly with music videos.

The film has been linked, and sometimes compared to 1996's Freeway starring Reese Witherspoon.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Hard Candy opens with a flirtatious online conversation displayed on a computer screen, between two people named Thonggrrrl14 and Lensman319. The two agree to meet in person at a local coffee shop. Hayley Stark, a 14-year-old girl (Ellen Page, 17 years old at the time of release at the Sundance Film Festival in 2005) and Jeff Kohlver (Patrick Wilson), a 32-year-old photographer, engage in innocent conversation about literature, music and food (Hayley is especially fond of chocolate).

Talking about having to wait for things, Jeff mentions as example, that he has to wait four years for Hayley to come of age. Hayley says seemingly jokingly that 4 out of 5 doctors think that she is insane. At one point in the coffee shop she accidentally exposes a medical handbook, and explains this by saying that her father, who is a professor at a medical school (UCW?), is allowing her to audit a class. After discussing the band Goldfrapp, Jeff says that he has a bootleg MP3 copy of their latest live concert that he attended, and that Hayley was disappointed that she missed. She suggests that she go back to his house so that she can listen to the recording. Jeff agrees, and drives her to his house.

At Jeff's home, Hayley listens to the recording of the Goldfrapp concert while Jeff pours two glasses of ice water in the kitchen. Jeff goes to hand her a glass, but Hayley declines stating that she was taught to never drink something she hasn't poured herself. Jeff offers to pour it again, while she watches, but Hayley jumps at the chance to concoct something a little more exciting from the other ingredients Jeff has in his kitchen, including a bottle of vodka she finds in his freezer. She makes them both screwdrivers.

After a few drinks, Hayley suggests that Jeff take some photographs of her, similar to the ones he has taken of models that are displayed on the walls of his home. He goes to get his camera while Hayley retrieves a CD out of her bag and inserts it into his CD player in the living room. When Jeff returns with his camera he feels dizzy and disoriented. Hayley, meanwhile, dances and jumps onto his couch and lets Jeff take some photos. He orders her to sit down but soon passes out. She restrains him to a swivel chair with a rope.

She has brought along, in addition to the medical handbook and rope, drugs, surgeon's scrubs, surgical tools (including a scalpel and bulldog clip), a video tape, and a stun gun. It turns out that Hayley is executing an elaborate plan of sadism and revenge for crimes she suspects him of having committed.

Hayley begins to search the house. Jeff has made photographs of underage girls and hung them on the walls. Although they are legal, Hayley thinks this is suspect. She also finds it suspicious that she is unable to find any pornography anywhere, though he is a man living alone. While in Jeff's bedroom, she finds a gun, but tosses it carelessly on the bed. In a safe under a decorative stone bed she finds a photograph of a missing young girl, as well as a large disc (marked "Stuff"), which may be a cache of child pornography. Hayley suspects Jeff of killing the girl, named Donna Mauer, but he denies it.

Jeff incapacitates Hayley and manages to wheel to his bedroom and get the gun. When he rushes back into the living room, however, Hayley wraps his head in plastic wrap. Jeff retaliates by banging her against a wall, but eventually loses consciousness.

When Jeff wakes up, he is spread out on and tied to a table. He is not wearing pants, and has a bag of ice on his genitals. Hayley psychologically tortures Jeff by telling him she is going to castrate him. She reads aloud his e-mails and letters to him, while waiting for his genitals to become numb. During this time Hayley also composes an email (as herself) to Jeff's ex-girlfriend, saying that she and Jeff are in love but that she is worried that he and Janelle may get back together. Hayley reveals that she is underage and that Jeff still has feelings for Janelle. More importantly, however, Hayley attaches the underage pictures she found in the safe and asks Janelle if they are pictures of her. Hayley does not send the email, however, instead using it to taunt and frighten Jeff. Once he is numbed, Hayley talks her way through the castration procedure, with much detail, while he watches the operation on a TV near him. In the course of the operation, Jeff unburdens himself by telling Hayley of how his aunt threatened to burn his genitals on a red-hot stove element when he was nine because she found her young daughter, naked from a bath, playing a tickle game with him. Hayley is unmoved, contemptuous even. She proceeds with the castration. After, she kindly advises Jeff on dealing with his situation, helpfully telling him of a website for eunuchs, spelling the word for him ("I had a hard time with that, myself."), offering support ("You don't have to face this alone.") At this point, the audience and Jeff believe that he has been castrated by Hayley.

Hayley tells Jeff she is going to take a shower. Jeff, through great effort, frees himself from the rope, discovers that he's "all there" and the operation was not real (We now realize the operation was really played back from a VHS tape entitled "Castration Procedure", and the blood and testicles she removes and grinds down the garbage disposal were fake).

Jeff dials 9-1-1 into his mobile phone but stops before dialing the final digit and decides against calling. Instead, he picks up the scalpel with the intention of using it on Hayley. He enters the bathroom and pulls the shower curtain aside, behind which is nothing but a running shower. Hayley emerges from behind the bathroom door and overpowers him with the taser. Jeff is partially paralysed by the taser and Hayley leaves him in the bathroom to clean up the house, remove evidence of the assault, and wipe down everything she has touched. She takes the liberty of calling her friend to go see a movie ("Hey Trace. Uh, look, I'm gonna be done like sooo much sooner than I thought, so you want to catch a movie or something? Cool."), looking young and innocent. Meanwhile, Jeff has laboriously crawled his way out of the bathroom and into the hallway. Hayley casually steps over him and tasers him in the back.

After Jeff passes out again, Hayley calls Janelle, whom Jeff is still madly in love with and hopes to win back someday. When she calls Janelle, Hayley pretends she is a police officer ("This is Lieutenant Hayley of the LAPD.") and tells Janelle she needs to come to Jeff's house and that there has been a horrible accident.

When Jeff wakes up again, he finds himself standing on a chair with a noose around his neck. At this point, Sandra Oh, playing a neighbor, comes to the door to deliver Girl Scout cookies ordered by Jeff. This unexpected occurrence is the only time Hayley loses her cool, but she improvises a story about Jeff being ill, and the neighbor accepts the story, being more interested in trying to persuade Hayley to babysit for her. Hayley tells him that she has written his suicide note and that Janelle is already on the way. She tells Jeff that he should simply kill himself before he is revealed as a pedophile. She says that if he kills himself, she won't let anyone know what she has discovered and his secret will die with him. Jeff breaks free from the noose and pursues Hayley with a knife, following her onto the roof, where she has tied the rope around the chimney and created another noose. He threatens to kill her, but she holds him off with a gun. Just then, Janelle pulls into the driveway and starts looking for Jeff. He says that he is going to tell Janelle what has happened to him and call the police. Hayley laughs and says that she will simply claim that Jeff is lying and that he had been molesting her.

Faced with this dilemma, Jeff decides to kill himself. Before putting the noose on, he claims he didn't kill Donna, but that he "only" watched another man kill her. Hayley tells Jeff that the other man said the exact same thing to her right before he killed himself. Thus, it is revealed that Hayley has already discovered the other man and tortured him in a similar manner. Hayley places the noose around his neck, and as he is preparing to jump from the roof and hang himself, he looks back at her as if for reassurance. "Don't worry. I promise. I'll take care of it all." she assures him. Jeff, silhouetted against the smoggy LA skyline, walks off the roof with the rope around his neck. Hayley, also in silhouette, runs to the edge and negates her assurance with the last line of the movie: "Or not."

The movie ends with Hayley, wearing a red hooded sweatshirt (rather like Little Red Riding Hood, having dispensed with the wolf), cutting through a wooded area to meet with her friend.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Reception

  • Page in particular has been highlighted for "remain[ing] consistently convincing" to her role which is both "powerful and chilling." USA Today outlines the character of Hayley Stark as "an avenging angel with a twist ... a privileged, intelligent teen who is naive in some ways but extremely savvy and mature in others."[2]
  • Ellen Page won Best Actress from the Austin Film Critics Association, the only best actress award of the award season (2006-2007) not won by Helen Mirren.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Urban Dictionary: Hard Candy entry. Retrieved on October 16, 2006.
  2. ^ Ellen: Manipulates 'Hard Candy' to great effect by Claudia Puig, USA Today, December 22, 2006 section E2

[edit] External links

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