Hard Candy

--Reviewed by Lindy Loo

Plotline: A 14-year old girl meets a 32-year old photographer over the internet, and they eventually make plans to meet. Their meeting ends with her going home with him, to a rather isolated house in the hills. Nothing good can, of course, come of this.

Scariness factor: Not so much jump-in-your-seat scary (though there were a few instances of these) as it is rattling and horrifying.



Gross-Out Factor: Most of it is left up to your imagination, though there is some blood and violence.

Complaints: Honestly, I'm at a loss. At worst, maybe I could complain about the fact that this movie rides the fine line between horror and thriller, and those of you going to see it expecting horror might be disappointed. But even that isn't so much a fault of the movie as it is a fault of marketing.



High Points: This movie was fantastic. 100% bonafide fantasticness. I wish I could gush about actual plot, but I'd rather not say a word about it as it would probably give too much a way. All I can say is don't read anything about it before seeing it and you will no doubt enjoy it more. Things to gush about: the acting is wonderful. Convincing, believable, realistic. Good good stuff. The movie has a few MTV-ish shots throughout that I could give or take, but overall, it has some very very unsettling and beautiful moments of cinematography, particularly at the end. It also plays wonderfully with the color red. The plot-line is also very very well-done. It could've gone the route of being very bad or being buouyed up by just its novelty, but the characters are so complex, and the interactions are so interesting that it rises far far above this. The movie also has an incredible energy driving it forwards--my attention was completely sucked in throughout. I just kept wanting to see how everything was gonna pan out, and I found myself holding my breath throughout out of nervousness. Very nice pacing. I seriously could continue to gush, but it'd be about more literary things (like about the fact that the characters are virtually history-less and we know very little about them, which in any other book or movie would be a flaw, but which in THIS movie fits in perfectly with the themes of the movie itself), so I'll try to stop myself.



Overall: Go see this movie. Even if you scoff at the fact that it's been marketed partially as a horror film, it is worth seeing regardless. It is very very intense and very very good. Get ye. GET YE!

Grade: A