‘Hard Candy’ Chips Juno’s Tooth
Post-Juno, I decided to catch up on Ellen Page’s acting. Tonight I finally watched Hard Candy, the I Spit on Your Grave for the To Catch a Predator generation.
The film follows a girl named Haley (Ellen Page) who decides to play a little too rough with a 30-something photographer (Patrick Wilson) she meets online. This Lolita has a serious vendetta.
Word of warning: anyone who says they like this movie shouldn’t be left alone in a room with your young daughter. It’s a sick, masturbatory fantasy for anyone who ever wanted to be tied up by a 14-year-old girl. Much like a Saw or Hostel subjects us to grotesque violence, Hard Candy forces us to sit through the torture of a man who (spoiler alert) probably should have his balls cut off. If I cared one way or another for the characters, I wouldn’t be as repulsed, but this film is entirely devoid of anything. Even Saw made an attempt at having a moral.
Worse, it looks like it was shot by the type of high-minded, but tasteless graphic designer we see lampooned in sitcoms. In the immortal words of Roger Ebert, I hated hated hated this movie.
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