Hammerman Ikon

Hammerman Ikon Film Guide

Hard Candy
2005
**½
Director: David Slade
Cast: Ellen Page, Patrick Wilson, Sandra Oh, Odessa Rae, Erin Kraft

After chatting online, 32-year-old Jeff meets 14-year-old Hayley and lures her back into his apartment. But who is the predator and who is the victim in this setup? Jeff finds himself drugged and bound to a chair, and at the mercy of a crazed, vengeful teenager. David Slade's feature debut is a tense two-people-in-one-room thriller which follows in the footsteps of Roman Polanski's Death and the Maiden and Takashi Miike's Audition. Brian Nelson's script starts with a lovely twist, but then becomes a disappointingly monotonous display of mental and physical torture. Ellen Page and Patrick Wilson are both excellent, even if the film is ultimately nothing more than a seedy and populistic revenge fantasy.