Hard Candy - Candy crush

‘Hard Candy’ is a kind of ‘cat and mouse’ tale in the most traditional of ways.  You may think that a story about – effectively – a young, skinny fourteen-year-old girl versus a fully-grown healthy man might be a little one-sided.  However, you obviously haven’t seen how Ellen Page plays it.

A successful photographer (Patrick Wilson) has a weakness for chatting up underage girls over the internet.  Yet he gets more than he bargained for when he finally gets round to meeting Ellen Page’s character, ‘Hayley,’ For she takes it upon herself to perform a little adolescent vigilante justice upon him.

Like I said... you may think that there’s not an awful lot a teenager can do to a man.  But then if I told you the specifics of what transpires, I’d be spoiling it for you.  All I’ll say is that the balance of power shifts and then shifts again between the two as their own private little war ensues.

There’s really only the two characters in the film, therefore it’s up to Page and Wilson to shoulder the film’s burden.  And they do it pretty well.  Both characters are a pair of sad and damaged individuals and one of the film’s many strengths is that it makes it hard for the audience to tell who’s the guilty party – if there is one at all.

It’s not an easy watch.  You have to be ready for a pretty dark and bleak drama with some really nasty moments.  One thing’s for sure... this ain’t no ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ tale.

8/10 The Force is definitely strong with this one