Wednesday, October 17, 2007
vigilante vs paedophile
who would you root for? A 32 year old paedophile who is suspected to be involved in the missing of a teenager or a 14 year old vigilante who takes justice in her own hands.......Sounds like a pretty darn easy question ya.....but no....not for me personally during the course of this movie.....which is why I will by now list this movie as the most twisted movie I have ever watched.....not just literally but the fact that it toys with your logic.
Jeff (Patrick Wilson) is a 32 year old paedophile who preys on teenagers on the internet and his new target Hayley (Ellen Page) was about to meet him face to face after 3 weeks of teasing. Little did he know that he is now at the other side of a trap that he must search his soul and fight to get out of this. 
Hard Candy works because who exactly is the protagonist? Who does the director want you to root for? There are no Aragorns, James Bonds, Jason Bournes type characters. Both characters are flawed and not 100% evil. That is why this movie is so sick until it is good......no blood needed...no gore nothing.....this movie just toys with your mental mind be it who to support or the sick tendencies of the paedophile or the vigilante who ended up wanting to perform a castration procedure....The castration scene on the other hand was one of the sickest thing filmed. Its worse than (hostel+hills have eyes+sin city+kill bill+whatever you think is gross) x 1000 times. Nothing was shown but the exasperation of the paedophile and the way they toy with your mind is just insane. I actually felt sick after the entire scene that lasted a full 20 minutes and wanted to stop but I wanted to see the comeuppance of the vigilante...I ended wanting the paedophile to kill the 14 year old.......and does that make me a sick person....I have absolutely no idea....maybe I am just a guy......that is why this movie is so sick.....you know its wrong to root for the paedophile but at least I wanted to
Watching this movie tells me that 2 wrongs doesn't make a right. Be it dealing with a paedophile etc. Maybe it is because of Wilson's freakin awesome performance....(and probably that was why I wanted him to win in the end). Of course a movie is not a movie without its flaws. 1) Page's character though a vigilante has absolutely no likeable qualities in her. 2) unrealistic that a 14 year old girl can manhandle a 32 year old guy time after time 3) over the top bravado by Page's character. 4) The ending didn't really make much sense. Ultimately it is truly a great movie with only 2 main leads helming an entire movie. Wilson should've gotten an Oscar nod for his performance
I have never ever supported an "evil" character so much other than Chris Wilton in Match Point. Sandra Oh had a cameo role which lasted prolly 5 minutes.....