Mittwoch, 7. November 2012
Hard Candy
janixunso, 19:28h
The movie “Hard Candy” by the director David Slade, starring Patrick Wilson and Ellen Page, is characterized as a thriller film and was published in 2005.
It is about an underage girl, called Hayley, who meets a probable pedophile man, called Jeff, tries to uncover his pedophile character and tortures him.
Plot
The movie starts by showing the audience a chat-conversation on the internet between a young girl and a man. They seem to have talked for a while to each other and are flirting until they decide to meet finally in person. The couple meets in a café, eats together and keeps on flirting and complimenting each other. Jeff, the man, mentions quite often how mature she would be and that she would act older than she actually is. Later Hayley goes to the bathroom to change her clothes and as the two keep on flirting she keeps provoking him, for example by opening the bathroom door showing herself to Jeff only wearing her bra and pants. Then they decide to go to Jeff’s house so Hayley can listen to some music he has and that she is very interested in.
At Jeff’s house the two keep talking a lot about Jeff’s work as a photographer and flirt. Hayley is very interested in his pictures of some young and underage models. When they start to have some drinks they start to talk about sexual affairs with some of his models, but Jeff keeps confirming that he did not have any sexual relation with the models and knows about the legal boundaries. Later Hayley can convince him of taking some shots of her, but when they start taking pictures Jeff passes out due to some drugs Hayley put in his drink earlier on.
Recovering his consciousness Jeff finds himself tied to a chair and Hayley tells him what she just did. The girl starts to call him a pedophile and accuses him of stalking her. Then she starts searching through his house to find some evidence of his pedophile tendency, while he tries to convince her that her accusations are not true. After a while Hayley discovers photos and pictures of Jeff’s ex-girlfriend and a CD. Unfortunately the audience does not get to know what is on the disc, but one can suspect that Hayley finally found the evidence she was looking for, because later on she tells him that she is going to castrate him so he cannot do harm to young girls anymore. To get finally some control of his situation Jeff tries to talk to Hayley about relationships and a good childhood to manipulate her, but she just laughs about his attempts. Therefore Jeff tries to deliberate himself violently, but Hayley manages to catch and overpower him again and again during the movie.
After she overpowered him and he recovers his consciousness again, Jeff is tied to a table and his genitals are being cooled with ice, because Hayley will castrate him soon. She puts a screen next to him so he can witness his castration on the screen, while she is taping it with a camera. At this point Jeff becomes completely crazy, cries and begs for pardon. After the operation Jeff is able to deliberate himself again and realizes that he has not been castrated by Hayley and that the video he has seen was a documentary film. Then he grabs the telephone to call the police, but before calling he decides to take his revenge by himself, so he takes a knife to attack the girl. But Hayley manages again to overpower the man and tries to hang him when he recovers again. Then his neighbor comes to Jeff’s house and disturbs Hayley by realizing her plans. While she is at the door, Jeff breaks free again. Therefore Hayley runs away. When Jeff is looking for her he admits to himself angrily that she uncovered finally his personality by saying: “This is how I am”.
When Jeff catches the girl on the rooftop she points a gun at him, shows him a rope and offers him to kill himself. She says she had called his ex-girlfriend, who he still loves very much, and she would take care of his things so nobody would find out about his tendencies. This would be the only way out for him.
The now completely desperate Jeff admits in the end that he witnessed the murder of a little girl, but did not kill her. But Hayley does not believe him, because she says that the other person involved told her the same before he died. In the end Jeff takes the rope and hangs himself at the roof of his house. Before doing so Hayley tells him again that she would take care of everything to convince him to kill himself, but after he jumps, she says to herself “Or not”.
In the last scene of the movie the audience can see the young girl walking down a street. Her facial expression is almost not understandable. She could be happy, sad, worried or confident.
My personal opinion
I really liked the movie, although I still do not know what to think about it. It was very entertaining in a sense of captivating the audience and was very thrilling, so it is a good example for its category and definitely deserves praise and appreciation from the movie industry.
But what I did not like so much about the movie is the fact that we, the audience, cannot see any real evidence for what Hayley is claiming. Therefore it is very difficult to say who of the two is the good and who is the bad character of the story. Both are bad in some way. Of course Hayley seems to take revenge for some other underage victims of pedophiles, but does that make her the good person/a hero? She is taking self-justice in a terrible way and the audience witnesses everything of it.
Something else that disturbs me is that we do not get to know much about Hayley. On one hand she tells a lot about herself, about being very intelligent, educated and even attends classes in university. But how come that she is so engaged in taking revenge on some pedophile man? Was she herself once a victim? Did she know the murdered girl she talks about? It would be easier to understand her behavior if we knew more about her background. Well, on the other hand this might even be a good thing. At this way the audience cannot identify that much with a person taking the right in her own hands and takes self-justice.
The question is as well, is it a good thing to kill pedophiles? In the movie it appears like it would be.
To conclude, it is a brilliant, but disturbing movie, which leaves its audience thinking about the movie for quite a while after they watched the film. Therefore it is to be considered brilliant, but it should still be discussed what the message of this movie should be. I personally cannot figure out a message I would like or admit that it is a good one.
It is about an underage girl, called Hayley, who meets a probable pedophile man, called Jeff, tries to uncover his pedophile character and tortures him.
Plot
The movie starts by showing the audience a chat-conversation on the internet between a young girl and a man. They seem to have talked for a while to each other and are flirting until they decide to meet finally in person. The couple meets in a café, eats together and keeps on flirting and complimenting each other. Jeff, the man, mentions quite often how mature she would be and that she would act older than she actually is. Later Hayley goes to the bathroom to change her clothes and as the two keep on flirting she keeps provoking him, for example by opening the bathroom door showing herself to Jeff only wearing her bra and pants. Then they decide to go to Jeff’s house so Hayley can listen to some music he has and that she is very interested in.
At Jeff’s house the two keep talking a lot about Jeff’s work as a photographer and flirt. Hayley is very interested in his pictures of some young and underage models. When they start to have some drinks they start to talk about sexual affairs with some of his models, but Jeff keeps confirming that he did not have any sexual relation with the models and knows about the legal boundaries. Later Hayley can convince him of taking some shots of her, but when they start taking pictures Jeff passes out due to some drugs Hayley put in his drink earlier on.
Recovering his consciousness Jeff finds himself tied to a chair and Hayley tells him what she just did. The girl starts to call him a pedophile and accuses him of stalking her. Then she starts searching through his house to find some evidence of his pedophile tendency, while he tries to convince her that her accusations are not true. After a while Hayley discovers photos and pictures of Jeff’s ex-girlfriend and a CD. Unfortunately the audience does not get to know what is on the disc, but one can suspect that Hayley finally found the evidence she was looking for, because later on she tells him that she is going to castrate him so he cannot do harm to young girls anymore. To get finally some control of his situation Jeff tries to talk to Hayley about relationships and a good childhood to manipulate her, but she just laughs about his attempts. Therefore Jeff tries to deliberate himself violently, but Hayley manages to catch and overpower him again and again during the movie.
After she overpowered him and he recovers his consciousness again, Jeff is tied to a table and his genitals are being cooled with ice, because Hayley will castrate him soon. She puts a screen next to him so he can witness his castration on the screen, while she is taping it with a camera. At this point Jeff becomes completely crazy, cries and begs for pardon. After the operation Jeff is able to deliberate himself again and realizes that he has not been castrated by Hayley and that the video he has seen was a documentary film. Then he grabs the telephone to call the police, but before calling he decides to take his revenge by himself, so he takes a knife to attack the girl. But Hayley manages again to overpower the man and tries to hang him when he recovers again. Then his neighbor comes to Jeff’s house and disturbs Hayley by realizing her plans. While she is at the door, Jeff breaks free again. Therefore Hayley runs away. When Jeff is looking for her he admits to himself angrily that she uncovered finally his personality by saying: “This is how I am”.
When Jeff catches the girl on the rooftop she points a gun at him, shows him a rope and offers him to kill himself. She says she had called his ex-girlfriend, who he still loves very much, and she would take care of his things so nobody would find out about his tendencies. This would be the only way out for him.
The now completely desperate Jeff admits in the end that he witnessed the murder of a little girl, but did not kill her. But Hayley does not believe him, because she says that the other person involved told her the same before he died. In the end Jeff takes the rope and hangs himself at the roof of his house. Before doing so Hayley tells him again that she would take care of everything to convince him to kill himself, but after he jumps, she says to herself “Or not”.
In the last scene of the movie the audience can see the young girl walking down a street. Her facial expression is almost not understandable. She could be happy, sad, worried or confident.
My personal opinion
I really liked the movie, although I still do not know what to think about it. It was very entertaining in a sense of captivating the audience and was very thrilling, so it is a good example for its category and definitely deserves praise and appreciation from the movie industry.
But what I did not like so much about the movie is the fact that we, the audience, cannot see any real evidence for what Hayley is claiming. Therefore it is very difficult to say who of the two is the good and who is the bad character of the story. Both are bad in some way. Of course Hayley seems to take revenge for some other underage victims of pedophiles, but does that make her the good person/a hero? She is taking self-justice in a terrible way and the audience witnesses everything of it.
Something else that disturbs me is that we do not get to know much about Hayley. On one hand she tells a lot about herself, about being very intelligent, educated and even attends classes in university. But how come that she is so engaged in taking revenge on some pedophile man? Was she herself once a victim? Did she know the murdered girl she talks about? It would be easier to understand her behavior if we knew more about her background. Well, on the other hand this might even be a good thing. At this way the audience cannot identify that much with a person taking the right in her own hands and takes self-justice.
The question is as well, is it a good thing to kill pedophiles? In the movie it appears like it would be.
To conclude, it is a brilliant, but disturbing movie, which leaves its audience thinking about the movie for quite a while after they watched the film. Therefore it is to be considered brilliant, but it should still be discussed what the message of this movie should be. I personally cannot figure out a message I would like or admit that it is a good one.
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