Movie Review (2): Candy

By Maura Reilly Nov 18, 2006, 8:17 GMT

Heath Ledger has returned to Australian films in the long-awaited adaptation of Luke Davies’s novel “Candy.”  Ledger is joined by up and comer Abbie Cornish and Geoffrey Rush in a film the director Neil Armfield has described as: “a love triangle with a hero, a heroine, and heroin.”

Candy (Cornish) and Dan (Ledger) are two young lovers, artists and addicts. We meet the couple during the salad days of their relationship, appropriately entitled “Heaven,” when their drug use fuels their passion and their art. 

Dan pulls Candy further into the darker realms of addiction and into the darker methods of feeding that addiction. Much to her parent’s bewilderment and consternation Candy marries the charming but morally ambiguous Dan and their idyllic romance falls to “Earth”. 

Gradually their lives become a series of cons or scams, even turning tricks to get that next $50 for a hit. A harrowing attempt to go clean leaves both Candy and Dan vulnerable but determined to stay together. It all proves too much for Candy who is hospitalized for a nervous breakdown. The couple must decide which is stronger, their love for one another or their need for this drug.

The story of the inevitable decent into addiction is commonly treaded ground. Honestly, we’ve seen this same scenario over and over again; even done better in some cases. We get a change of accent this time, moving the action to Australia though there isn’t anything terribly distinctively Australian about the locations. So the universality of the subject matter of the film bleeds over into the seemingly incidental setting of the film.

What is worth talking about is the cast. Heath gives Dan much needed emotional depth.  This is extremely helpful in garnering sympathy for a character that is willing to let his wife prostitute herself for fix money. His performance is thoughtful and nuanced.

In a stark but wonderful contrast Abbie’s Candy is bold and raw. She displays all the audacity of youth and the vulnerability of a woman in love with great maturity. There is true chemistry between the two actors which constantly brings the center of this film, their love, into focus. 

Geoffrey Rush, always a pleasure to watch, gives a turn as a Falstaff-type character who supplies Candy and Dan with drugs and money and the movie with some much needed comic relief.  There is an underlying sadness to the Caspar character that sees the youthful beauty of the couple but also the future they will embrace all too soon.

Candy’s parents are aptly played by Noni Hazlehurst and Tony Martin. Martin’s Mr. Wyatt is the placating father to Hazlehurst’s iron-willed Mrs. Wyatt.  Their distress is palpable and excellently portrayed.

At times it feels every bit of its 108 minutes. The lighter moments with Rush’s Caspar are too few and lost in the bleakness.

At the end of the day, this is a movie about drug addiction and its effects on body and soul so to expect a cheery ending is naive.

What Candy’s story lacks in originality it strives for in its performances. Cornish in particular, proves she has the gravitas to tackle a complicated character.

Opens November 17th in New York and December 1st in LA. MCAA: Rated R