Hard Candy (film)
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2008-07-16T21:54:57Z
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/* Plot */
{{Infobox Film | name = Hard Candy
| image = HardCandy_movieposter.jpg
| caption = Film poster featuring Hayley, resembling [[Little Red Riding Hood]], as [[Bait (luring substance)|bait]] in an oversized [[beartrap]].
| director = [[David Slade]]
| writer = [[Brian Nelson (screenwriter)|Brian Nelson]]
| producer = [[Paul G. Allen]]<br>Rosanne Korenberg
| starring = [[Ellen Page]]<br>[[Patrick Wilson (actor)|Patrick Wilson]]<br>[[Odessa Rae]]<br>[[Sandra Oh]]
| music = [[Molly Nyman]]<br> [[Harry Escott]]
| cinematography = [[Jo Willems]]
| editing = [[Art Jones]]
| distributor = [[Lions Gate Entertainment]]
| released = [[April 14]], [[2006]] ([[United States|USA]])
| runtime = 103 min.
| country = {{USA}}
| language = English
| budget = Under $1,000,000<ref name="MakingOf">"Making ''Hard Candy''", DVD featurette</ref>
| gross = $7,022,209<ref name="BoxOfficeMojo">{{citeweb|title=Hard Candy|url=http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=hardcandy.htm| publisher =Box Office Mojo| accessdate =2007-10-20}}</ref>
| website = http://hardcandymovie.com/
| amg_id = 1:313594
| imdb_id = 0424136
}}
'''''Hard Candy''''' is a [[2005]] [[independent film|independent]] [[psychological thriller]] film focusing on a confrontation between a [[sexual predator]] and a 14-year-old girl he attempts to ensnare.
The film is directed by [[David Slade]], written by [[Brian Nelson (screenwriter)|Brian Nelson]], and stars [[Patrick Wilson (actor)|Patrick Wilson]] and [[Ellen Page]]. It was the first feature film for Slade, who previously had worked mostly with [[music video]]s.
==Plot==
The film opens with a flirtatious [[online]] conversation between a man and a girl, who agree to meet in person for the first time at a cafe. The two are revealed as 14-year old Hayley Stark ([[Ellen Page]]) and 32-year old [[photographer]] Jeff Kohlver<ref>While written as "Jeff" in the film credits and early script, most revisions of the script spell it as "Geoff". An example can be seen in the DVD featurette "Making ''Hard Candy''", at about 35 minutes.</ref> ([[Patrick Wilson (actor)|Patrick Wilson]]). After further flirtation, Hayley suggests they return to Jeff's house, to listen to a [[Goldfrapp]] [[MP3]] Jeff recorded. Once there, Hayley makes them both [[screwdriver (cocktail)|screwdrivers]], after telling Jeff she doesn't drink unless she can be sure of the contents. As they drink, Hayley suggests that Jeff take some photographs of her, similar to the ones of young girls displayed on the walls of his home. She takes her shirt off and puts some music on as Jeff returns with his camera and begins taking pictures. He suddenly feels disoriented and passes out.
Jeff wakes up tied to a wheeled computer chair. Hayley explains she drugged him, and then accuses him of being a [[pedophile]]. As she searches his house, she discovers letters of correspondence between him and a woman named Janelle, who turns out to be Jeff's ex-girlfriend for whom he still has feelings, as well as photos of a sexual nature in a hidden safe in his [[rock garden]]. Among them is a picture of Donna Mauer, a local girl who had been [[kidnapping|kidnapped]] and remains missing. Jeff denies involvement in Mauer's disappearance before kicking a distracted Hayley to the floor and wheeling himself to his bedroom to get a gun. As he returns, they struggle. He begins to bang her against the wall but Hayley is able to wrap his head in plastic wrap and [[asphyxiation|asphyxiate]] him into [[unconsciousness]].
Jeff wakes up tied to a table with a bag of ice on his [[genitalia|genitals]]. Hayley informs Jeff of his impending [[castrate|castration]], which she says will be a kind of public service. After a long conversation she then begins composing an [[e-mail]] to his ex-girlfriend. Despite Jeff's attempts to dissuade her through threats, bargaining, negotiation, and pleas for her sympathy, Hayley apparently proceeds with the operation. Following its conclusion, she steps out of the room, and Jeff breaks free from his bonds, only to discover that the operation was faked. Scalpel in hand, he [[stalking|stalks]] Hayley to the bathroom, where he is blindsided from behind by Hayley, who shocks him into unconsciousness with a [[stun gun]].
Jeff awakens again, this time on a chair with a [[noose]] around his neck. Hayley reveals that she has written a fake [[suicide]] note on his behalf and has called Janelle ([[Jennifer Holmes]]), telling her to come to the house. She offers Jeff a choice between killing himself before being revealed as a sexual predator, or living with the shame and legal consequences of his crimes. Their conversation is interrupted when a neighbor ([[Sandra Oh]]) knocks on the door. Hayley answers and convinces the neighbor that she is Jeff's niece, and that everything is fine. When Hayley returns, Jeff breaks free from the noose and pursues her to the roof, where she has created another noose, and holds him off with the gun.
As Janelle arrives at the house, he finally confesses to Hayley that he was involved in Donna Mauer's death, but claims that he only watched while another man actually committed the murder, and offers to tell her his name for sparing himself. Hayley reveals that she already knows his name, and that, "Aaron told me you did it, before he killed himself." Janelle is outside the house now, knocking, and Hayley reminds Jeff that he still has the option of killing himself to avoid prosecution, as well as the shame of Janelle finding out the things he has done. She promises him that if he does this, she will destroy all evidence of his crimes and that nobody but the two of them will ever know. Jeff, finally beaten, doesn't resist when Hayley slides the noose around his neck. He then walks off the roof, seconds before Hayley says, "Or not". A loud crunch is then heard; it is implied that Hayley has made the rope too long. Instead of 'allowing' Jeff to commit suicide, she has tricked him again and he now to face the shame of his crimes, as well as his the pain of his injuries (possible broken legs). She gathers her belongings and escapes through the woods at the rear of the house, and is seen walking down a road.
==Cast==
*[[Patrick Wilson (actor)|Patrick Wilson]] ... Jeff Kohlver
*[[Ellen Page]] ... Hayley Stark
*[[Sandra Oh]] ... Judy Tokuda
*[[Odessa Rae]] (as Jennifer Holmes<ref>[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1230874/ Odessa Rae's IMDB Profile]</ref>) ... Janelle Rogers
*[[Gilbert John]] ... Nighthawks Clerk
==Inspiration==
The idea for ''Hard Candy'' came from a news story on ''[[20/20]]'' producer [[David W. Higgins]] saw about young [[Japanese people|Japanese]] girls who would lure older businessmen to a location with the promise of sex and would [[assault]] and [[mugging|mug]] the men with a gang of other girls once the men arrived.<ref name="MakingOf" /> This led him to wonder, "What if the person you expect to be the predator is not who you expect it to be? What if it's the other person?"<ref name="MakingOf" /> He then hired writer [[Brian Nelson (screenwriter)|Brian Nelson]] to flesh out the idea.<ref name="MakingOf" />
==Production==
Due to the controversial nature of the work, the budget was kept under a million dollars so that the production company would not ask to change anything.<ref name="MakingOf" /> Oh agreed to do the film due to her desire to work with fellow Canadian actress Page, with whom she had appeared in ''[[Wilby Wonderful]]'', but not in the same scenes.<ref>[http://sandraoh.blogspot.com/2007/12/on-ellen-page.html Sandra Oh News.: On Ellen Page<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
Very little [[Dubbing (filmmaking)|ADR]] was used in the film, with only a couple of lines modified in post-production. Only nine minutes of music are present in the film, with [[ambient]] sounds, such as heavy breathing, making up most of the [[soundtrack]]. The film was shot in eighteen and a half days, largely in sequence, and mostly on a [[soundstage]]. The soundstage was based on Higgins' home, in case their budget didn't allow them to use a soundstage. The creative team actively tried to eschew the [[Hollywood]] traditions of performance, avoiding ''cliché'' [[Directorial beat|beats]] when they could.
==Thematic elements==
[[Image:Colors in Hard Candy.jpg|thumb|Screenshots illustrating the digital coloring effects used throughout the film. The top screenshot shows how the scene was shot, while the bottom screenshot shows the modified coloring as present in the film.]]
Hayley wears a red hooded sweatshirt that is often seen as an [[allusion]] to "[[Little Red Riding Hood]]".<ref name="MakingOf" /> However, this was a serendipitous wardrobe choice by the creative team that was not realized until later on.<ref name="MakingOf" /> Foreign marketing for the film made great use of this allusion. For example, a tagline on the Japanese site for the movie reads "Red Hood traps [[Big Bad Wolf|the Wolf]] in his own game."<ref>Original Japanese text:赤ずき<br>http://www.hardcandy.jp/</ref>
[[Jean-Clement Sorret]] was the [[Color grading|digital colorist]] for the film, and is one of the few instances where a colorist received a spot in the opening credits.<ref name="commentary1">DVD audio commentary with director David Slate and writer Brian Nelson</ref> The film contains many coloring effects and "density shifts" of lighting to reflect the moods of the characters. For example, when Hayley gets angry the colors would get cold.<ref name="MakingOf" /> One effect used which, as far as the director is aware of, hadn't been done in cinema before, was to brighten the lighting in filming and recorrect everything down in post-production.<ref name="MakingOf" /> This allowed for facial details to still be visible while having a darkened atmosphere.<ref name="MakingOf" /> The process required a custom-built [[digital intermediate]] to be made and proved to be extremely difficult, with corrections having to be made frame-by-frame in some instances.<ref name="MakingOf" />
Early [[working title]]s of the script were ''Vendetta'' and ''Snip Snip''.<ref name="commentary1" /> The producer wanted a title with a "sugar and spice combination...a mixture of harsh roughness and innocence and vulnerability" and settled on the title ''Hard Candy''.<ref name="commentary1" />
== Release history ==
The film premiered at the 2005 [[Sundance Film Festival]] with a midnight screening. The [[Dolby Surround]] System failed before the screening and the audience was kept out until it was fixed.<ref name="MakingOf" />
''Hard Candy'' opened in [[Los Angeles]] and [[New York City]] on [[April 14]], [[2006]].<ref name="MakingOf" /> During its opening weekend, the film grossed nearly $30,000 per theater, the highest per-screen average in the top 50.<ref name="MakingOf" />
The American [[DVD]] was released on [[September 19]], [[2006]] with two [[commentary track]]s, an hour's worth of making-of [[featurette]]s, six [[deleted scene|deleted]] and [[extended scene]]s, the script and director's notebook, and [[film trailer|trailers]] for ''Hard Candy'' and other Lionsgate films.
== Reception ==
The film won three awards at the [[Festival de Cine de Sitges|Sitges Film Festival]], 2005: Slade won the Audience award for Best Feature Film and the Best Film award, and [[Brian Nelson (screenwriter)|Brian Nelson]], the writer, won the award for Best Screenplay.
Critics applauded Page's performance; ''[[USA Today]]'' praised her for "remain[ing] consistently convincing" to her role which is both "powerful and chilling."<ref>"Ellen: Manipulates 'Hard Candy' to great effect" by Claudia Puig, ''[[USA Today]]'', [[December 22]], [[2006]] section E2</ref> She won the Best Actress award from the [[Austin Film Critics Association Awards 2006|Austin Film Critics Association]],<ref>[http://www.austinfilmcritics.com/past.html#Award06Sum www.austinfilmcritics.com<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> one of the few [[List of film awards|significant]] Best Actress awards of the award season not won by [[Helen Mirren]] for ''[[The Queen (film)|The Queen]]''.
The film made just enough to pay for its million dollar budget from its domestic release and proceeded to make nearly six million dollars more in world-wide revenue.<ref name="BoxOfficeMojo" /> According to [[Rotten Tomatoes]], 67 percent out of 125 critics gave the film a positive review.
==Notes and references==
{{reflist}}
==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
*[http://hardcandymovie.com/ ''Hard Candy''] Official Website
*{{metacritic film|id=hardcandy|title=Hard Candy}}
*{{imdb title|0424136|Hard Candy}}
*[http://aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=22918 Review] at [[Ain't It Cool]] (contains plot detail)
*[http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1808728077/info/ Yahoo]
*[http://www.horrorlair.com/movies/hard-candy-script.html October 19, 2003 draft script]
*[http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/filmnetwork/A12451510 BBC . Film Network - David Slade On Hard Candy]
[[Category:2005 films]]
[[Category:American films]]
[[Category:English-language films]]
[[Category:Psychological thriller films]]
[[Category:Films with a pedophile theme]]
[[Category:Films shot in Super 35]]<!---Source: Making Hard Candy featurette--->
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