Yeah, That's What I'd Do

So now that the introduction is out of the way, where to?

I watched the movie "Hard Candy" last night. For those of you that are unfamiliar with it, here's a quick spoiler-free summary of it. 14 year old girl named Hayley meets 32 year old man named Jeff IRL after chatting on the internet for a few weeks. Hayley goes back to Jeff's house with him. Hayley surprises Jeff and takes him captive in his own house. Hilarity does not ensue and needless to say, lives are changed. Was mine? Not exactly but I did really like the movie. For starters, it has a very original storyline that explores each of the character's psyche but made sure to never tell too much and overwhelm the viewer with contrived philosophical rhetoric.
Along with a really well worded script, the film's dialogue and sense of character development shone through. Patrick Wilson and Ellen Page both did an amazing job of portraying their characters to a very believable level. Grey's Anatomy's Sandra Oh also has a 3 minute appearance as Jeff's concerned neighbor Mrs. Tokuda. As events unfold and plot is revealed, both Jeff and Hayley's characters really begin to evolve as layer after layer is stripped and their true motives and self shines through. One thing that really stood out for me though in the film was the lighting and filming techniques. Now, don't mistake me for any sort of film critic because I can say with complete honesty that I have next to no clue about any sort of camera angles, lighting techniques, etc, etc. I just know what works for me and this film certainly did. The shifting of muted grey tones to bright hued whites really led me to feel that the director was trying to show the strong sense of conflict between right and wrong in this movie and how at least for me personally, the line was never very clear.

On a related note, Double Viking has an excellent Top (9) Unconventional Date Movies that includes Hard Candy. So not only can you enjoy this movie by yourself or with someone where no sexual interest exists at all; but DV promises "you'll be having fish tacos for dinner" if you watch this with a date. That is of course as long as you warn her about the first 15 minutes before little Hayley goes Donkey Kong on Jeff's ass. Apparently girls might get creeped out by the internet sexual predator bit. Whatever...

Rating? I'm going to go with a "Definitely Watch It" and compliment that with a 4.25 out of 5.