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Rating:
Hard Candy: composition of the ingredients.
A generous splash of "Misery" (The Idea)
A man and a woman (here more a girl than a woman) practically carry the film on their own: there are only five actors and two of them won't even have the chance to say a word. A film very likely to have cost less than ten thousand dollars. In "Misery," the village sheriff made a poor figure as the third wheel; here, for a few moments, the village idiot appears, but neither will serve any purpose.
Two tablespoons of "Funny Games" (The Setting)
The (rather cold) rooms of a house. Shot in only 18 days and with scenes in very strict chronological order, "Hard Candy" rarely steps out of the four walls. "Funny Games" may have come first, but the direction here is more intense, with crisp and clever dialogue: not a moment of rest.
Mix well and bring to 100 degrees.
"Hard Candy" is a term used on the web to indicate a young girl with a strong character. Patrick Wilson, during the shooting of the castration scene, almost collapsed and fainted for a few moments (the scene indeed is quite hard to stomach, even for the tough-skinned). The director, David Slade, I had known as a video director for the Stone Temple Pilots. I'm happy for him: he has undoubtedly improved his professional expectations.
Best film at the international festival of Catalonia (what even is that?); the quality of the movie suggested better hopes. There is even a plot: Hayley, a 14-year-old girl, meets a charming and brilliant 32-year-old man on the internet. Imagining he's a pedophile, she deems it appropriate to end up at his house to torture him to death.
You, the viewer eager for constant emotional swings, will love it: you'll start by rooting for the poor defenseless girl, only to distance yourself sensibly when she is about to cut his balls off. And so on, until the end, in a ping-pong of classy blows, tension, and terror. Three and a half stars, therefore, which rise to four by virtue of the most pyrotechnic ending shot in recent years of cinema. Ultimately, a very classy film.
Take a look.
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