Candy
Director: Neil Armfield
Cast: Heath Ledger, Abbie Cornish, Geoffrey Rush, Noni Hazlehurst
Australia 2006
For most people in this country their impressions of Australia are formed by afternoon soap operas and lager commercials. That constant sunshine, easy-going "she'll be right" attitude and endless suburbia is not that far from the truth, but it is the glossy surface. Underneath that easy-going exterior is a seedier world of bigotry, racism and a lack of cultural identity. A large number of youth become disillusioned with both that insular world and either leave the country to travel, or drop out of society, head for bush communes or simply turn to drugs. With a good standard of living, a welfare state and great weather those alternative lifestyles aren't such a struggle, even when in the grip of drug addiction.
Candy is a drama and a love story film, with drug addiction as its motivating force. But the title refers to the lead female character rather than euphemism for drugs. Candy (Abbie Cornish) is an artist who falls for wannabe poet Dan (Heath Ledger). They are madly in love, but with a taste for heroin. As their relationship with each other develops so does their dependence on heroin and they start on that cliched slippery slope of a life of petty crime and prostitution to feed their habit. With the films three acts clearly signposted as chapters (Heaven, Earth and Hell) it is all a bit too predictable. The performances from the two leads are emotionally convincing, although they are two of the healthiest and best looking junkies you are ever likely to see, even in the throes of withdrawals.
Geoffrey Rush is excellent as the gay chemistry professor who mentors the two young lovers, supplying them with pure H when they needed it. Tony Martin and Noni Hazlehurst, two well-known and respected Australian actors, give good turns as Candy's parents: the slightly naïve father, who can’t see his daughter and her boyfriend's deceptions and the mother who sees it very clearly. Interestingly, one of the roles that established Noni Hazlehurst's career was in the 1982 film Monkey Grip, where she played a young artist who fell in love with a junkie.
With such strong performances from the cast this would probably work better as a piece of theatre, where you may feel closer to the characters, because in the film it is hard to develop any real empathy for them or their situation. The movie goes some way to showing the depravity of drug addiction, but it is no match for Aranofsky's Requiem for a Dream or the excesses of Gilliam's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
Candy is showing at The Times BFI London Film Festival on October 19 at the Odeon West End and October 21 at the ICA.
Cast: Heath Ledger, Abbie Cornish, Geoffrey Rush, Noni Hazlehurst
Australia 2006
For most people in this country their impressions of Australia are formed by afternoon soap operas and lager commercials. That constant sunshine, easy-going "she'll be right" attitude and endless suburbia is not that far from the truth, but it is the glossy surface. Underneath that easy-going exterior is a seedier world of bigotry, racism and a lack of cultural identity. A large number of youth become disillusioned with both that insular world and either leave the country to travel, or drop out of society, head for bush communes or simply turn to drugs. With a good standard of living, a welfare state and great weather those alternative lifestyles aren't such a struggle, even when in the grip of drug addiction.
Candy is a drama and a love story film, with drug addiction as its motivating force. But the title refers to the lead female character rather than euphemism for drugs. Candy (Abbie Cornish) is an artist who falls for wannabe poet Dan (Heath Ledger). They are madly in love, but with a taste for heroin. As their relationship with each other develops so does their dependence on heroin and they start on that cliched slippery slope of a life of petty crime and prostitution to feed their habit. With the films three acts clearly signposted as chapters (Heaven, Earth and Hell) it is all a bit too predictable. The performances from the two leads are emotionally convincing, although they are two of the healthiest and best looking junkies you are ever likely to see, even in the throes of withdrawals.
Geoffrey Rush is excellent as the gay chemistry professor who mentors the two young lovers, supplying them with pure H when they needed it. Tony Martin and Noni Hazlehurst, two well-known and respected Australian actors, give good turns as Candy's parents: the slightly naïve father, who can’t see his daughter and her boyfriend's deceptions and the mother who sees it very clearly. Interestingly, one of the roles that established Noni Hazlehurst's career was in the 1982 film Monkey Grip, where she played a young artist who fell in love with a junkie.
With such strong performances from the cast this would probably work better as a piece of theatre, where you may feel closer to the characters, because in the film it is hard to develop any real empathy for them or their situation. The movie goes some way to showing the depravity of drug addiction, but it is no match for Aranofsky's Requiem for a Dream or the excesses of Gilliam's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
Candy is showing at The Times BFI London Film Festival on October 19 at the Odeon West End and October 21 at the ICA.
posted by Chris Patmore at 10:03 PM
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