A poet falls in love with an art student who gravitates to his bohemian lifestyle -- and his love of heroin. Hooked as much on one another as they are on the drug, their relationship alterna... Read allA poet falls in love with an art student who gravitates to his bohemian lifestyle -- and his love of heroin. Hooked as much on one another as they are on the drug, their relationship alternates between states of oblivion, self-destruction, and despair.A poet falls in love with an art student who gravitates to his bohemian lifestyle -- and his love of heroin. Hooked as much on one another as they are on the drug, their relationship alternates between states of oblivion, self-destruction, and despair.
- Director
- Writers
- Luke Davies(novel "Candy: A Novel of Love and Addiction")
- Neil Armfield(screenplay)
- Stars
- Director
- Writers
- Luke Davies(novel "Candy: A Novel of Love and Addiction")
- Neil Armfield(screenplay)
- Stars
- Awards
- 6 wins & 17 nominations
Videos1
- Little Angeloas Little Angelo
- (as Cristian Castillo)
- Director
- Writers
- Luke Davies(novel "Candy: A Novel of Love and Addiction") (screenplay)
- Neil Armfield(screenplay)
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
- All cast & crew
Storyline
- Taglines
- More is never enough.
- Genres
- Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)
- Rated R for pervasive depiction of drug addiction, disturbing images, language, sexual content and nudity
- Parents guide
Did you know
- TriviaHeath Ledger was the director's only choice for the role of Dan.
- GoofsWhen Dan is sitting in the shower, the tattoo (which was real and was blacked out for some reason - it is actually a cluster of planets) on his shoulder smudges and transfers to the shower tile. The next scene it is intact.
- Quotes
Candy: Once upon a time, there was a Candy and Dan... Things were very hot that year... All the wax was melting on the trees... He would climb balconies, climb everywhere. Do anything for her... Oh Danny boy. Thousands of birds. The tiniest birds adorned her hair... Everything was golden... One night the bed caught fire... He was handsome, and a very good criminal... We lived on sunlight and chocolate bars... It was the afternoon of extravagant delight... Danny, the Daredevil... Candy went missing... The day's last rays of sunshine cruise like sharks..."I wanna try it your way this time!" You came into my life really fast, and I liked it. We squelched in the mud of our joy. I was wet thighed with the surrender... Then there was a gap in things... And the whole earth tilted... This is the business. This is what we're after. With you inside me... Comes the hatch of death...
- SoundtracksSong to the Siren
Arranged and Produced by Paul Charlier
Performed by Paula Arundell
Performed by Tim Buckley
Courtesy of Universal Music Publishing Australia & Tim Buckley Music
But Candy opens on a hypnotic note of false security; lovable slacker Dan (Heath Ledger) and bohemian art student Candy (Abbie Cornish) indulge in drug-induced games, smiling, laughing, kissing, even playing with children. In the next scene Candy almost ODs in the bathtub, and the film bravely swoops down and offers us a look at something infinitely more unpleasant: drug addiction. Indeed, 'Candy' was largely being advertised as a romance for reasons I cannot pretend to understand, other than perhaps the shock factor in abandoning gushy romance for a bruised reality. The truth of the matter is that it offers one of the most unflinching looks into seedy junkie lives since Reqiuem For a Dream.
The cast give fine and sometimes even excellent performances. Geoffrey Rush lends his dutiful Aussie charm to the supporting role of an 'accidental mentor' of sorts to Dan and Candy "the father I always wanted, the one who buys you fizzy drinks and candy", remarks Dan in the introduction and we thereby know early on that his character is perhaps not a flawless or ethical one. Ledger is constantly pending between likable and loser in the film, and it is thanks to his apt narrative of events that he remains so well centred in the heart of 'Candy' (which should rightfully be titled 'Dan'). As a clever technique by first-time director Armfield, Ledger's soft-spoken narrative becomes punctured, mercilessly abandoning us in a time when we need it the most when the seedy circumstances become too dire.
But the big surprise is Abbie Cornish who is now regrettably stirring up more buzz with the Phillippe-Witherspoon split than with her remarkably bruised performance as the tragic heroine, Candy. She captures the escalating despair, desperation and nihilism of her character effortlessly and translates it with great emotional transparency. Soon she has resorted to full-time prostitution to get money for hits, and it is just heartrending. In particular there is a poignant and emotional scene with Candy and her father embracing after a shocking bit of news that cements the chaos Dan and Candy have gotten themselves in.
Interestingly enough, 'Candy' is explicitly divided into three titled segments that pop up on the screen: heaven, earth and hell and it does a great job at portraying all three, uninhibitedly navigating the contrasts that form at their transitions. The soft-spoken words, love-making, drug-induced romantic euphoria and intimate caressing of the 'heaven' segment render 'hell' all the more harrowing, although I must remark that I found 'earth' to be by far the most graphic and difficult to watch. This can best be attributed to the scenes in which Dan and Candy try to lose their heroin addictions and lay suffering for days on a mattress, Trainspotting-style.
In the end, 'Candy' remains much like its peers, a cautionary tale of the horrors of drug life and how addiction can mess you up, and mess with relationships. Although there are few discernible flaws that jump out and grab you, the attempted humour simply isn't in-tune and it is needed as a tension-easer at times. Owing to this, Candy sadly offers little light at the end of the tunnel and it is far too easy to lose yourself in the gloom hopelessness. Yet most of this is compensated for by great performances of intrinsically good people that you cannot help rooting for, as Dan says: "Everything we ever did we did with the best of intentions."
8 out of 10
- Flagrant-Baronessa
- Nov 13, 2006
Details
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $45,128
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $3,646
- Nov 19, 2006
- Gross worldwide
- $2,105,096
- Runtime1 hour 48 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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