FemaleFirst.co.uk: DVD: Hard Candy [DVD] [2006]

Hard Candy [DVD] [2006]
enlarge	Director: David Slade Actors: Ellen Page, Patrick Wilson, Sandra Oh, Jennifer Holmes Studio: Lions Gate Home Ent. UK Ltd Category: DVD List Price: ~~£17.99~~ Buy New: £4.40 as of 22/11/2009 23:44 GMT details You Save: £13.59 (76%) New (10) Used (11) from £2.89 Seller: brrwarenhuis Rating: 65 reviews Sales Rank: 7416 Format: PAL Language: English (Original Language) Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over Region: 2 Number Of Discs: 1 Running Time: 100 Minutes Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2 Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.4 x 0.6 EAN: 5060052410979 ASIN: B000HXDS7C Theatrical Release Date: 2006 Release Date: September 10, 2007 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days


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Customer Reviews: Showing reviews 1-5 of 65 1 2 3 4 5 6 ...13 Next » This film will become a cinema classic July 25, 2007 Yorick (England) 4 out of 5 found this review helpful I shall stick my neck out on this one and say that it is going to become a cinema classic. I took it from my local dvd rental a few days ago and realise I'm going to have to go back and make a copy of it. This is more than good acting. it is convincing acting. Our age, like every age, has its taboos-questioning the Nazi Holocaust is one, opening the way to a debate on paedophilia is another. This film with only two major roles presents us with a suspected paedophile, the male wolf, and little Red Riding Hood, brilliantly, so brilliantly, played by Ellen Page (she didn't win an oscar?! do some people not want to draw too much attention to the theme underlying the film?) as the intended victim who is no victim at all. This film undermines so many stereotypes or illusions it is hard to know where to start. On the one side the illusion that 14 year old girls are innocent. They are mostly anything but, as this film shows. They are immature but that is something different. Another illusion battered: the presentation of models, very young models is all "art". It isn't, it is a manifestation of lust-the "Lolita is art" brigade get a shaking in this film but so do the "castrate the swine" brigade as well. In the dialogue between little Red Riding Hood and her padeophile victim, each side scores off the other: the people who call for lynch justice are a hair's breadth or no breadth at all from certifable hysteria-but Hailey scores too-the way from "innocent" photography to child murder seems to be a matter of degree. These photographs of girls "are just part of my portfolio. I take pictures of national parks as well". "Yea", says Hailey "your walls are covered with pictures of young girls and your photograpahs of national parks just get put away in a drawer-ok". I would very perversely perhaps certainly very subjectively plead for an interpretation (and great art per defintion allows interpretations)-of this film as a frustrated love story. Hailey's wrath is after all perilously close to jealousy. She isn't on the walls. Other girls are. The man she could have loved is only she has alread discovered interested in her becaue of her age-he wouldnt have chatted to her on the internet had she been 18. It is not that girls are innocent which condemns the paedophile but that the peadophile puts age above personality-and Hailey whose intelligence is terrifying (had she married her victimshe would have worn the trousers for sure)understands that instinctively and rationally. It also turns her heart to iron. What can be more insulting and depressing for any woman: "you only love me for my age"? A character in an Agatha Christie novel says somewhere that "mad people are terifingly sane" and that is Hailey to a t. She is also terrifngly intelligent. She is jilted lover, feminist spokes(person), puritan, sociologist, revenging angel, woman in love, chirpy teenager, psycopath and the judgement of God all in one. A "happy ending" for this film would have been Hailey saying "you are going to marry me in four years because we are made for each other you and I-if you mess around with any more little girls or if you refuse to marry me I'll reveal to the media what I found in your safe and destroy your career and your life, but if you can wait four years and marry me heart and soul I promise I am yours for ever"-that would have been a dramatic and happy ending. If I were the film director I'd gave done it like that but this film does not have a happy ending. (the ending is not realistically convincing but it is symbolically convincing-so much of this film is more like theatre or or even opera than cinema). I dont think many people would feel triumphant at the end of this film though. This is a love that m,ight have been turned into darkness and calousness. Both protagonists lose- one in death and the other in dying spiritually. Well that's how I see it-a film like this will speak to different people in different ways. Oh yes ,people will be discussing this film in 50 years time long after Harry Potter has become no more than a cultural footnote. Edge of the Seat!!!! December 21, 2008 Mr. G. Bridgeman-clarke (Rayleigh UK) 4 out of 5 found this review helpful I watched this film without knowing anything about it. There was I sitting down to a two hour horror hoping to be entertained and I must say that I have never ever been so taken in by a film. The plot is well described by others on here so no need to go there and I would not wish to take any of the thrill out of the film by telling the plot. I hate people who do that. What I would say is that the film had me looking away and praying that what the young girl said she was going to do she wouldn't do - but anticipation is a real thrill ride here. br / br /Great casting and only five actors. I wonder why this film never got the acclaim it deserves? This knocks Saw and Hostel for six. This is a real thrill a minute and whilst you may guess what is about to happen, it has enough plot turns to keep you on edge. br / br /How can I not give it 5 out of 5? Guys will cringe August 3, 2009 Dismal Angel (Scotland) 2 out of 2 found this review helpful Jeff, a talented but lecherous photographer with a penchant for underage girls lets himself get talked into meeting with a young fourteen year old girl with a nervous but worldly attitude to the world. br / br /At first, her agreement to go to his house leaves Jeff thinking the ball is completely in his court, but things begin to quickly go south when he learns that Hailey is not who she seemed to be and that he may have stepped into a trap. br / br /A darkly disturbing but clever twist is what really makes the movie, and it's definately one that will have you gripping the edge of your seat (and guys possibly wincing while crossing their legs). Incredible movie carried completely by Ellen Page and Patrick Wilson with only a vague cameo by Sandra Oh. br / br /Ellen Page is fantastic at playing a child despite her age of 18 at the time (really sucking you into the initial innocence), and Patrick Wilson is believable enough to leave you somewhat sympathetic despite the story. br / br / br / br / br / who said amateur surgery isn't good times?! November 17, 2006 K. Winfield (England) 9 out of 13 found this review helpful Considering the majority of the movie takes place within one apartment between two characters, you have to give the writer some real credit for being able to keep the viewer interested. Which I believe is done very well. br / br /Ellen Page does an amazing job playing Hayley. She is able to portray the sweet innocence of a 14 year old girl and still manage to pull off the edgy side to her character. Even when she seems to go all pyscho she still retains some of the innocence. br / br /One thing I loved about this movie was that our sympathies for the two characters changed throughout the movie. One minute we feel sorry for Jeff as it seems he is being wrongly accused. Then all of sudden we are siding with Hayley and praying that she hurts him just a little bit more. br / br /Admittedly I was squirming a little during the infamous castration scene but i would challenge any guy not to. br / br /A great quality of this movie is that the story is easy to follow and has interesting twists. Yet everything isn't spelled out for the viewer which means by the end we are able to make our own conclusions. br / br /Overall this is a great movie, with an incredible and different story compared to your average hollywood flick. This movie is so un-hollywood and that alone is a refreshing change. Thoughtful, gripping, uncomfortable viewing May 31, 2007 Ash Cloke (Oxford, England) 9 out of 13 found this review helpful Ever thought that dealing with a paedophile would be simple? Just requiring a pair of scissors, a quick snip, preferably without anaesthetic? David Slade has taken this idea ~ revenge against a paedophile ~ and teased out of it numerous questions and strands of meaning. br / br /The basic plot, 14 year old girl meets pervy photographer online, then goes back to his place, has been described already. What happens next then becomes less and less predictable. As Hayley proceeds to drop the jail bait act and take control, questions of guilt (what did he actually do?) and punishment (what does he actually deserve?)start to circle and blur the moral line. What seemed black and white at the beginning of the film - that all sexualization of underage girls is evil - is shown to be far more complex and we are all shown to be implicated. After all the sexy photographs of underage models which adorn the walls of the photographer's apartment were taken for commercial purposes to sell stuff we all buy. br /The enactment of the most usually recommended "treatment" for such offenders is almost unbearable to watch even though, or perhaps because, much of it happens in the audience's (as well as the 'victim's') imagination. But if we can't bear to think about it how can we justify prescribing it? This implication of society, of the audience, in the moral questioning has an ironic relationship to Roman Polanski's 'Death and the Maiden'. As in the Polanski movie, the action takes place largely within a claustrophobic interior, almost a stage set, a metaphor for the claustrophobic interiority of deviant sexuality. At one point when the photographer pleads to be allowed to submit himself to the legal system, Hayley scoffs that a short jail term wouldn't be enough, that society would not necessarily ostracise him. After all, she says "didn't Polanski just win an Oscar?" - a reference to the director's indictment for drugging a 13 year old girl with Quaaludes in order to have sex with her, and Hollywood's refusal to reject him. br / br /The dialogue is stunningly scripted with one volte face after another as each character articulates their own version of reality. What results is an intersubjectivity which replaces the possibility of either identifying with one or other of the characters or allowing the audience to make believe that an objective view is possible. br / br / A film for grown ups. Go watch it. Showing reviews 1-5 of 65 1 2 3 4 5 6 ...13 Next »

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