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Hard candy - Patrick Wilson, Ellen Page, Sandra Oh, Jennifer Holmes, David Slade

Threat advisory: High - High risk of entertaining activities

Movie propaganda

Hayley Stark's (Ellen Page) a smart, charming teenage girl - but even smart girls make mistakes. She's hooking up in a coffee shop with Jeff Kohlver (Patrick Wilson), a guy she's met on the internet. And even though he's a cute, smooth high-end fashion photographer in his early 30s, Hayley shouldn't be suggesting that the two of them go back to his house alone.

When they get there, Hayley quickly finds some vodka and starts mixing screwdrivers. She even suggests a photo shoot and strips off some clothing. Everything is going well for Jeff... until his vision blurs and fades, and he passes out.

It turns out Hayley has spiked Jeff's screwdriver, and when he revives, he's tied down with Hayley searching through his place. She doesn't think it'll take too long to get a confession that she's not the first teenage girl Jeff's brought home and, more importantly, that her prisoner knows what happened to Donna Mauer, another girl who disappeared from Jeff's favourite coffee shop. And if he's unwilling to confess, well, she has another plan.

Theatrical propaganda posters

Target demographic movie keyword propaganda

Film drama photograph teen adult internet relationship paedophilia date rape drug kidnap sex abuse

Persons of interest

Patrick Wilson .... Jeff Kohlver
Ellen Page .... Hayley Stark
Sandra Oh .... Judy Tokuda
Jennifer Holmes .... Janelle Rogers
Brian Nelson .... Screenwriter
David Slade .... Director

Cinematic intelligence sources

Hard candy official movie site
Hard candy film production notes
Hard candy QuickTime movie trailers

Awards and film festivals:

British Independent Film Awards 2006: Nominated: Best Foreign Independent Film
Sydney Film Festival 2006: Hot spot

Studios and distributors:

Icon Film Distribution

Intelligence analyst

Special Agent Matti

Theatrical report

Wow. On the one hand, Hard candy is a reasonably gritty (ie genital-free) descent into one aspect of the world of paedophilia. On the other hand, Hard candy is an empowerment of the victim/survivor. On the other other hand, Hard candy is a hard-core psycho-sexual thriller. You could even say that it's Saw meets Mysterious skin meets The woodsman. Talk about yummy paedophile goodness...