The Pagan Agenda

Rating:

While there is a redundancy factor in being so late to praise a film already given its share of accolades, I must add my voice to the chorus of praise for ‘Hard Candy’, a film that truly deserves its hype. Typically not one to fancy the sort of physical assault that comes from horror (and let’s be clear, as a functioning member of the male persuasion, this is horror) I do enjoy the odd fright, and by measure of my still accelerated heart rate this film delivers. The sheer frequency of contortions I went through during my viewing of the film would also indicate just how well the film worked on a visceral level, involving me in the dread of bodily harm onscreen.

By now I expect most people already know the plot: an online flirtation between a potential pedophile and a fourteen year old girl leads to a private encounter at the man’s home which turns sadistic fast as roles are reversed and the hunter becomes the hunted. Patrick Wilson plays Jeff Kohlver, the unsuspecting target of young Hayley Stark’s ire, a symbolic Red Riding Hood to Jeff’s Big Bad Wolf. Hayley is played with terrifying realism by relative newcomer Ellen Page. While both actors played their roles superbly I am especially fond of Patrick Wilson who has found his way into a lot of things I am enthusiastic about (most notably ‘Little Children’ but also ‘Angels in America’).

My introduction to ‘Hard Candy’ came from a review by the BBC film critic Mark Kermode who called it an endurance test of discomfort well worth the effort, one which had audience members at his screening heading for the exits long before the credits would roll. Without giving much away he offered the rather vague yet enticing warning that men will be particularly unnerved by some of the developments in the film, a chorus of baritone moans eliciting from the theater in demonstration of that fact. From Kermode’s description I had a sort of idea of what to expect but this idea was embellished by my imagination, and in a way the actual experience was better and worse than I imagined; better because the violence in the film is not gratuitous but worse in that the psychological depth of the violence and the manner in which it is threaded along makes it all the more difficult to watch. Also there is enough genuine suspense in the conduct of the violence in order to keep one riveted, for in the same way that Kermode had kept silent on the precise nature of the violence, quite cleverly the full-page ads I have seen for the film do an interesting subterfuge with their choice of images. The suspense of this film is a well-packaged gift, a pandora’s box of surprises.

Director David Slade adeptly situates the film in a primary landscape of bright and colourful backdrops which, like the Red Riding Hood motif, stand in juxtaposition to the brutal nature of events that unfold before it; despite the shaggy appearance of Patrick Wilson it is the sweet-faced Ellen Page that bears the true traits of the wolf. For me, the way that the revelation of the guilt or innocence of the hostage is slowly revealed through one long tightly wound interrogation is highly reminiscent of Roman Polanski’s ‘Death and the Maiden’. ‘Hard Candy’ also shares the same theatrical delivery, the power struggle between the two characters is framed in extreme close-ups that emphasize the raw power of dialogue and facial gestures over complex cinematic devices. Given this pronounced importance in the film, the interrogation dialogue is a fascinating investigation into sexual politics that touches on the thematic issues of masculinity, justice, and teenage sexuality.

Some may question the maturity portrayed of this fourteen year old girl but surely she is a prodigy that has succumbed to her reasoning, and who has the blind determination to right a wrong that only this sort of young idealism could sustain. In a way it is the exact opposite of the slasher ethos which often choose to portray the threatening force as the epitome of nihilism; here Hayley’s zeal comes not from a lack of faith but rather an excess of it. All the gory details aside, I think the real terror in this film is the notion of being left to the whims of a very troubled fourteen year old girl, and it is this sort of tacit understanding of the social dynamics between these types that elevated the suspense for me. What do you do if your safety is put in the hands of a teenager’s conceit of the moral high ground? How does one reason with that sort of blind conviction? The precarious tightrope walk that Jeff undergoes in his struggle to breakthrough to Hayley is drama of the highest degree, made all the more profound by the ambiguity we as the audience feel for this anti-hero. ‘Hard Candy’ is a tough but rewarding film that is sure to captivate any who dares watch it.