While I did enjoy Hard Candy, the film is unquestionably sabotaged by logic errors in the second act which undermine the integrity of the plot the film is built upon.

To wit: what Hard Candy purports to chronicle is one sunny afternoon in the life of a fourteen year old girl as she exacts a horrific revenge upon a thirtysomething with an alarming fetish for minors.

The first half of the film is solid and gets the job done quite effectively. As the girl and her captive exchanged dialogue, the ideas discussed and the actions witnessed on screen generated an atmosphere of distinct discomfort for me. There's no doubt in my mind that the filmmakers were going for just that reaction and I applaud them for successfully pulling it off.

But then we get to the torture-as-justice aspect of the film, where the girl reveals that her imprisonment of the pedophile is merely setting the stage for some off-the-cuff surgery (if your mind is conjuring dark images as you read that sentence, chances are you're on the right track so I'll leave it at that).

The cracks in the foundation of the film appear when the girl explains that she's doing this because the punishment for pedophiles in society isn't harsh enough. Look, I have no sympathy for child molesters or their twisted ilk, but that's just outright bullshit. The life of a convicted pedophile is one of social rejection, loathing, condemnation and that's if they survive a stint in prison, where a pedophile in general population has a shorter life expectancy than the spin off of the televsion series M*A*S*H.

Then there's the about face the film perpetrates in the last fifteen minutes. What started out as a piece with psychological overtones (suggesting that the young girl herself is dangerously disturbed) transforms into some "adolescent as avenging angel" melodrama in the very last act. Great..except that going by the films own logic, anyone related to the prisoner now has moral justification for hunting her down and doing to her what she did to him.

Hard Candy is an intriguing film with solid central performances, but in the end I felt it undermined it's own premise by not demonstrating the strength of its initial convictions. Hell, by the time the end credits rolled, I wasn't really certain as to what those convictions actually were.

Five out of ten movies which are as emotionally conflicted as the average American Teenager.

A man meets a 14 year old girl through the internet. After a brief series of conversations the two agree to meet. One thing leads to another and the two wind up back at his home and begin to get to know each other a little better. After a few drinks and some more flirting an agreement is made between the two for a brief photoshoot. But between the camera flashes a game of cat and mouse will be played out, but the question is who the predator is and who is the prey?

For months I have heard nothing but raves for this movie. I have heard people say that “Hard Candy is the Fatal Attraction of our generation.” I have heard others say how shocking and realistic it is. All I can say about it is it is overrated and over-acted.

Most of you know the deal with this one so there isn’t really to much more to say about the plot other than what’s known. But the movie takes forever to get going and at times I found the film’s events to be downright laughable. What killed me the most is that for everything that little Haley is able to pull off or do is simply answered with this statement from her: “You forget I’m an honor student.” By the fourth time this annoying little brat said this I was ready to strangle her myself. The writer uses it for everything in this film and during the supposed big surgery scene when she whips that great little quote out while reading a medical book; I actually winced and looked away from the screen, not at the scene mind you but at the dialog and acting.

Ellen Page plays the pasty skinned Haley and she comes across to me as a whiney, know it all, who actually deserves anythingthat has ever happened to her through out her life, I can honestly say I hated the character. The Yin to Haley’s Yang is Jeff, a good looking thirty-something guy who has a little fetish for young girls. At least with this character you get some emotional attachment as you go through the movie wondering exactly how far he has went in his dark desires, but by the time you find out the truth, the character is such a complete pussy that I could of cared less of which character was the good guy or bad guy, if there was even one or the other in this film.

Hard Candy has a great premise and a sensational story that makes you want to watch it. I can see why some might dig it, but I thought it was fairly rough to sit through, even with some of the great violence in it, nothing about this film just snapped for me. Instead of a feature film, the storyline would have made a great CSI or Law and Order: SVU episode. As a movie I think it failed.

2 of 10