Hard Candy- The Movie That Doesn’t Let Go

The movie, Hard Candy is a totally unexpected new watch to see today, even by the camera direction alone. The perceived intimacy of the shots toward a plot of sexual predators and their victims is affecting in some great ways! Elliot Page and Patrick Wilson could not be better in this film, starring as a young girl and an older man meeting for the first time since talking online flirtatiously. As they meet for coffee and eventually end up going back to his place, the dialogue and plot truly gets fascinating.

As she appears naive and attracted to him, he remains careful to not speak or act in any way explicitly illegally toward her. Slowly, the tables appear to turn as she confesses to drugging and tying him up when he finally wakes. A recent murder of a young girl has occurred in their city and she shows her true motives toward him in seeking to uncover him as a sexual predator and potential murderer of the young girl.

The up-close shots of the two main characters in this tight cast provide a lot of intimacy and increased thought-provoke that makes their conversations and conflict much more personal and real. They proceed throughout the movie to discuss his and her perspectives on his relationships toward her and the other girls. Posing as a modest, abiding photographer, his levels of guilt as a sexual predator are slowly revealed and his facade broken as she verbally and physically searches for his guilt.

Remaining deadly determined to reveal his guilt as a sexual predator and in the murder, Page plays the role as 14-year-old assassin to an older man so incredibly. The character slowly reveals her high intelligence as well as deep knowledge of the man’s life and of similar predators. It is equally fascinating to hear both characters as they debate his guilt, background, and her perspective as another young potential victim seeking to make him her victim in the end.

The action also completely holds its own in this suspense film. While the topics are traditionally heavy, the cat-and-mouse action sequences provide for an easier watch that doesn’t let go of any of the thought-provoke toward what sexual predators and their potential young victims can look like and achieve. Far beyond expectations, Hard Candy flips the script in a lot of interesting, must-see ways.