Candy Review

When Heath Ledger died last year, the world lost a great talent. If you doubt this, find the small, obscure film called Candy. I defy anyone to watch it and come away saying that Ledger wasn't destined for greatness.

Candy is the story of Dan and Candy, a couple of young, once beautiful people who have started out life together as hopeful, would-be creative artists, and ended up hopeless, down-and-out junkies. The film follows their descent into the ugliest form of addiction, and makes no bones about showing this awful world, warts and all. This is no afterschool scpecial, and it's not a feel-good movie. Just as there are few happy endings for real-life heroin addicts, there are no happy endings for Dan and Candy, and the film never makes any pretenses that such an ending is likely or possible.

Unlike most relationship movies, which revolve around hope, Candy is a movie about hopelessness. Dan and Candy go to great lengths - depths, really - to get the money they need to fuel their addictions. Begging, borrowing, stealing, and selling themselves for sex - all of these propositions are on the table, and all of them are resorted to, because getting heroin becomes the focal point in their lives - the focal point of their relationship.

Abby Cornish is fine in the title role but, make no mistake about it: this is Heath Ledger's movie. As Dan, he has no trouble dropping his all-Aussie good looks and presenting himself as a scungy, greasy, low-down addict....a young man in desperate need of a bath, a hair wash, a change of clothing, and, really, a clue. His performance during the portion of the film which illustrates a doomed attempt to clean up his act is especially riveting. Given the circumstances surrounding Ledger's real life death, this performance is especially moving.

While this film deals realistically with drug addiction, and would be a powerful film for young people to see, it's definitely NOT for young children. I'd say no one under 12 or 13 should see this film - certainly not without the benefit of having an adult to discuss it with, afterward.