Language: English
Directed : Neil Armfietd
Writing credits (WGA) : Neil Armfietd (written by)
Cast: Abbie Cornish , Heath Ledger

Review

It is hard to believe that Heath Ledger’s character in "Candy" is a heroin addict who is also a really romantic poet. It is easy to believe in the rest of Ledger’s character because he is such a good actor at portraying his character’s habit with the needle. But really, a talented romantic poet? It would have been easier to believe that Ledger was a heroin addict that was also a bad poet that deluded himself into believing that he was actually good at poetic prose. When you’re hooked on drugs, it’s hard to find time to develop your talents so you can be actually good at something.

The beautiful Australian actress is Abbie Cornish ("Somersault" is further evidence of her beauty, and talent). Cornish is the title character, a heroin addict in love with Ledger’s carefree regular guy Dan. They get married, but Candy continues work as a prostitute after they’ve tied the knot to continue to pay for their drug habit. Dan is a loafer that accepts the fact that his wife is a prostitute, until she complains too loudly about it. Dan has a one-time stint as a con artist, but you wonder why the script chooses it to be a one-time only thing for him. One successful score and then he quits. Usually addicts continue to run to the same well until it runs dry.

The film tries to keep an intelligent and objective distant on the material – the viewers are watching these people from the outside. We never, for instance, ever see the dirty business of prostitution since it’s all performed off-screen. But in attempts not to get exploitive, it also fails to tap a nerve of unease. It’s hard watching any drug picture anymore without recalling "Requiem for a Dream," which could be the "Citizen Kane" of drug pictures – there may never be a better film about addiction. "Requiem" is so vividly overwhelming that it shakes your senses and rattles your nervous system. Candy doesn’t elicit much of a physiological reaction from you while watching it. All we’re really doing is observing some good acting, seen from a detached viewpoint.

There is one remarkable sequence however that cannot be forgotten. I can’t think of another drug picture that dramatizes the withdrawal stages as good as this film does. Dan and Candy are going to have a baby together and decide to go straight. After Dan’s one big score, they are now blessed with money for the first time. They get a new clean apartment that they furnish with a television, a mattress, and Chinese food. They’re going to fight any temptation. No needles! Each day is painfully slow, filled with the sweats and shakes, with intervals of vomiting. Collapses in the shower. Unceasing exhaustion and agony.

Several days go by and Candy is ready to go into pre-mature labor. Candy, still dazed from withdrawal, pushes a dead baby out of her unusually bloody uterus (maybe it’s not unusual, but there is a lot of blood). Dan and Candy plead with the doctors to resuscitate life into their baby which is barely past the embryonic stage of development. It’s a dead baby of flimsy bone and quivering half-developed flesh. But Dan and Candy want their baby! Cure it, doctors! They’re too sick to see that it’s a far-off possibility.

The film is divided into three segments titled "Heaven," "Earth" and "Hell." "Heaven," the fun part of drugs, is of course a given in a picture like this. We have to see why these characters are attracted to the high life. By Earth, the realities of hardship are setting in. So far, this is a good gimmick because it leaves us curious to how "Hell" could be any worse than the "Earth" segment. What became disappointing is how the second half of "Earth" was far worse in its depravity than the depths of "Hell." The film also contains a supporting performance by Geoffrey Rush as a “mentor” druggie, a character that comes off as a contrived add-on. There was never any real reason as to why Dan and Candy are longtime friends with his character.

If there are any reasons at all as to why to see this film, it’s to check out Ledger’s acting. After "Brokeback Mountain" and now this, he is proving that he can play self-destructive nearly better than anyone else. Ledger doesn’t so much wail in despair at his lowest moments as he does drown in despair. If there’s another reason to see this picture, it’s for the withdrawal sequence. It is the one time the film manages to make you feel queasy.

 

Keywords: Candy Movie Review stills pictures gallery wallpapers showtimes


Add your Feedback And Comments

Copyright Notice: All contents in this page are the property of MoviesBuzz.com Reproduction in any form including print and web media is not allowed.

Trade Queries: If you would like to buy these images in high resolution without the trademark logo kindly contact us