Year of Release - 2005
Rating - Rated R
Director ? David Slade
Running Time - 103 Minutes
Distributor - Lionsgate

Audience identification and empathy are typically so rigidly defined by filmmakers (even more so in genre movies, and probably even more so in American cinema) that a viewer rarely has to consider his or her sympathies with a character; the movie does that work for you ? it tells you who to love, who to hate, who to root for, and who to enjoy seeing righteously decapitated.

The American independent thriller Hard Candy doesn?t play by those rules, and ? while there are those who will find the film?s lack of easy moral center frustrating ? it still makes for an invigorating, challenging movie, and an admirably gutsy screenwriting experiment. Director David Slade and writer Brian Nelson?s taut, sometimes torturous little (a)morality play deals with pedophilia, but principally just as a general framework within which to explore larger issues of culpability and empathy ? this may also be a contributing factor to the film?s mixed reception, as the theme of predatory sexuality is off-limits for some unless dealt with in a traditionally ?responsible? (i.e. a stern rebuke) manner (murder, on the other hand, presents no problem). But confronting such a hot-button issue in such an ambiguous fashion is just one of many ways that Hard Candy confronts an audience.

On the surface, the film?s plot might sound like cookie-cutter revenge fare: 14-year-old Hayley (Ellen Page, in a remarkable performance) meets thirtysomething photographer Jeff (Patrick Wilson, also excellent) through the internet, and soon finds herself meeting the older man (whose intentions have already been made clear as partially sexual) in a coffee shop. The two hit it off, he takes her back to his house, they have some drinks, she poses suggestively for some photographs?and then she drugs him, ties him up, and prepares to castrate him for being a pedophile.

So what, right? Castration is always casually suggested as the only appropriate solution to the grotesquerie that is child molestation, and wasn?t Jeff asking for it by seducing a teenaged girl? Then again, Jeff seems like an affable, harmless fellow, and he didn?t actually do anything to Hayley?and Hayley certainly seems less than psychologically balanced. And Jeff is going through an awful lot of torment?but that?s what we wanted to see. Isn?t it?

Slade and Nelson provide a (vague spoiler alert) crucial revelation of information within the film?s climax that places the prolonged cat-and-mouse torture session in a different context ? one which is less morally ambiguous, and in this sense, they let viewers off the hook somewhat (though this doesn?t ease the tension when you?re watching the unfolding conflict between Hayley and Jeff that makes up most of the running time). But the filmmakers deserve credit for their refusal to provide pat moral platitudes ? and they also earn accolades for their visual approach: essentially a two-hander character study in a single house, Hard Candy could have easily become the static equivalent of a claustrophobic filmed play, but Slade avoids that. The film has a rich candy-colored (sorry, couldn?t resist) palette of primary hues and the camerawork possesses a consistently smooth and sinister glide throughout the drama (that Slade lamentably reverts to overly jittery handheld in a few moments ? notably a bathroom battle ? can be forgiven).

Much of the film?s dynamic color scheme was highlighted in post-production (Hard Candy may be the first feature film to give a digital colorist a much-deserved opening titles credit), one of the many details offered by the wealth of supplementary features offered by Lionsgate's excellent DVD release, which provides a vivid 16X9 2.35:1 transfer with Dolby 5.1 and 2.0 soundtracks. The highlights are the two commentary tracks ? the first, with Slade and Nelson, is one of the best commentary tracks in recent memory, as the two men discuss various facets (conceptual to technical) of the film?s production in detail, rarely stopping for breath. The second track with Page and Wilson suffers from the same anecdotal banter most actor-driven commentaries do, although it?s still entertaining to listen to the friendly rapport the two actors share, as contrasted with their on-screen personas. The deleted scenes and ?Controversial Confection? featurette are minor additions, but the DVD does have a thorough, hour-long making-of documentary that delves much deeper than your usual DVD production fluff.

Ultimately Hard Candy may just be a bit too?well, hard (or, more accurately, cold) for some viewers, and the film is an admittedly unpleasant experience at times. But like so many intense films that exist on the contemporary fringes of traditionally defined horror cinema ? it?s a hell of a lot scarier than the PG-13-rated Japanese horror remakes in your local multiplex.