Hard Candy, Fullscreen Edition DVD Review

Bottom-Line: Hard Candy is at times tough to watch, so be prepared to be shacked and awed.

Three weeks after chatting it up with 32-year-old fashion photographer Jeff Kohlver on Internet 14-year-old Hayley Stark (Ellen Page - Love the Boy, Juno) meets him in the Nighthawks Coffee Shop.

Hayley pours on the 14-year-old charm acting very much the innocent nymph she turned out not to be.  Jeff buys the act and takes her back to his house where upon Hayley prepares screwdriver for them and Jeff passes out. When he wakes up, he is tied to a chair, and sweet Hayley isn't so sweet after all; she accuses him of pedophilia and blame him for the disappearance of her friend, someone else Jeff and another man met on the Internet. Jeff denies this of course, and Hayley begins a very well thought out plan to punish Jeff for his crimes. 

My Viewpoint

Hard Candy (2005) is a great movie, not so much for its content, which is well written by-the-way, but for its chilling performances, both from the young Ms. Page and new comer Patrick Wilson.  Ms. Page tackled her role like a seasoned pro; I wanted her to best the Jeff even as a part of me wanted Jeff to best here; once you see the movie you'll understand why.  

The subject matter of the movie is certainly timely and relevant, and treated herein with a fresh look; i.e. the potential victim strikes first, using guile and intelligence to best to hunter.  Hard Candy is at times hard to watch, but I implore all to do so; this is high drama and mesmerizing cinema.