No Easy Answers
Spoilers ahead
Director David Slade, instilling a sense of claustrophobia and provoking extreme emotional responses from his audience, flawlessly executes playwright Brian Nelson’s twisted vision of a predator turned prey. It is next to impossible to remain neutral after having endured this film. Love it or hate it, one would be hard-pressed to deny its poignancy. The narrative deals with very many pertinent and socially relevant issues while addressing our society’s fear of taboo head-on. It is often transgressive. It refuses to compromise. More importantly, it doesn’t preach. When all is said and done, one is left with more questions than answers.
The majority of the action takes place in a confined space- the home of 32 year old photographer and sexual predator Jeff Kohlver (Patrick Wilson). Jeff is a professional photographer with a penchant for adolescent girls. After having chatted with a 14 year old Hayley Stark (Ellen Page) on the internet the two decide to meet at Nighthawks café. During their brief meeting young Hayley all but invites herself back to Jeff’s place. She seems decidedly naïve and feigns attraction to the man who is old enough to be her father. Once inside of Jeff’s house Hayley decides that they should have a few drinks. This ultimately leads to Hayley not so subtly suggesting that Jeff should do a photo shoot with her as a subject. During the shoot, Jeff becomes ill and loses consciousness. When he wakes up, he is tied to a chair.
The central theme of this film is social responsibility, and it is explored thoroughly for the remainder of this increasingly disturbing hour and a half of psychological torture. While watching this movie I found myself growing more and more restless and uncomfortable. A good deal of this is due to the ambiguous nature of the screenplay. At times, we can find ourselves sympathizing with Jeff, as abhorrent of a character as he is. Although Jeff is admittedly sick and psychologically damaged, we find ourselves wondering if any human being deserves to endure the sort of treatment to which Hayley subjects him.
In many scenes the brilliance of the screenplay is showcased through the ethical questions it skillfully addresses. Is Jeff a monster or a victim? Is he really just an irresponsible human being who, like many of us, has sexual tastes that deviate from the statistical bell curve of human sexual behavior? Can he help being the way that he is, and if not, is this a justification for his reckless and deplorable behavior? Does the sort of vigilantism that Hayley embodies have some socially redeeming value in a world that seems to have turned a blind eye on justice? Is Hayley a heroic and passionate young
girl with the strength to defend the innocent and the exploited, or is she as much of a villain as the man whose life she ultimately destroys? Is she an avenging angel, or just another symptom of the disease? The film leaves all of these questions unanswered, and we are left confronting the issues ourselves. There are no easy answers.
During a prolonged and painful scene that will leave the majority of male viewers squirming in their seats, Jeff relives a particularly traumatic childhood event that sheds some light on his psychological hang-ups and fixation on younger girls. Hayley coldly responds that this is not a justification for his actions, and this is the crux of the film’s message. Although Jeff is a human being with strengths and weaknesses like the rest of us, there is some dissociation from the consequences of his actions that renders him a borderline sociopath. The moral to this story, if there is one, is that awareness of the ramifications of our actions and the restraint required to act in accordance with this awareness is of the utmost importance for society as a whole. As Hard Candy’s director David Slade points out, the western world isn’t very big on accountability. We find ourselves as a culture constantly pushing for more and more freedoms without the responsibility and the discipline to balance our self-indulgent tendencies. Hard Candy is a brutal and confrontational reminder for the Jeff in all of us.
