Hard to Swallow

Every once in a while, to break up the movie recommendations from friends, top critics lists, and whatever, I like to toss in a suggestion from Netflix. So it was that I came to see Hard Candy, a very disturbing movie from 2005.

It's about a young teenage girl who meets up online with a photographer who may or may not be a pedophile. They arrange to meet in person, and wind up back at his house, where it soon is revealed that he's not the only one who may have a much darker agenda.

The movie has a powerfully provocative script, but it really lives or dies by the acting of the two people in these roles. It is, for all intents and purposes, a "two hander" play -- almost could have actually been a play but for a few tiny elements here and there. To fill the two roles are Patrick Wilson (most recently known for Nite Owl in Watchmen, but who has appeared in a number of other films) and Ellen Page (appearing here a few years before Juno made her more well-known).

These two are both simply phenomenal. They make the movie. In different scenes throughout, they bring genuine humor, chills, and everything else in between. If you like seeing powerful acting, you should watch the movie on the basis of that alone.

That said, it's not a perfect movie. It's as if the script writer and/or director couldn't quite trust that two actors would be capable of carrying the weight alone, and so there are a few random and unnecessary distractions. Most notably, Sandra Oh (of Grey's Anatomy) appears in a single scene that's meant to cause tension in the film. (The nosy neighbor is poking around the house. Will she find out what's going on?) Instead, I found the whole beat a distraction from the far more tense story of what was going on in the house between the two main characters.

There are also moments that perhaps strain credibility a bit thin. The young girl is believably portrayed as smart and wily beyond her years, but there are a few moments where it might go a bit too far. She also just seems more physically capable at times than a small, thin little girl like that could really be.

Still, though these things might mar an otherwise great film, they don't at all spoil it. Hard Candy is difficult to take, most certainly more unsettling than everyone would want to watch. But I found it a B+, and give it a definite recommendation for anyone who can appreciate a really dark film.