-
Recent releases:
- Jericho Ridge
- Civil War
- Mothers' Instinct
- Sweet East, The
- Ghost Busters: Frozen Empire
- Immaculate
- Roaring Twenties, The (reissue)
- Soul
- Dune: part two
- American Star
- Dune: Part 1 (reissue)
- Jerry & Marge Go Large
- Argylle
- Forever Young
- Jackdaw
- All of Us Strangers
- Holdovers, The
- Mean Girls
- Poor Things
- One Life
Hard Candy
Stars: Ellen Page, Patrick Wilson, Sandra Oh
Director: David Slade
A 14-year-old girl (Page, later Kitty Pryde in the third X-Men film), picks up Jeff (Wilson, the fort commander from The Alamo) and goes back to his flat.
Date rape? Just the opposite. The photographer, drugged, collapses and finds himself securely bound, while his teenage captor looks for evidence of child pornography and her prisoner's possible involvement in the murder of a girl.
'Sometimes I lose control,' admits Jeff later, of his teenage 'subjects'. But I never hurt them.' Not believing him, the girl prepares a gruesome way to extract a confession.
Uneasy and unpleasant, the film, pockmarked by 'Why would a killer do this?' plotholes, struggles to keep its slim story going. Page is very good, but the role is annoying, and the whole thing very hard to swallow.
David Quinlan
USA/Canada 2005. UK Distributor: Lionsgate. Colour by CFI/Technicolor.
104 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: 18.
Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 1, Violence/Horror 2, Drugs 0, Swearing 2.
Review date: 15 Sep 2006