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Retrospective Film Review
Hard Candy (2005) • 20 Years Later — Elliot Page excels in an unsettling drama of teen and predator
A thirtysomething man and a teenage girl get chatting online… but who’s targeting who?
A little way into David Slade’s Hard Candy, Jeff (Patrick Wilson) awakes from a drugged stupor to find himself held captive by Hayley (Elliot Page, credited as Ellen Page), a supposedly 14-year-old girl whom he had invited to his home, presumably hoping to seduce her. At this moment, the confident primary colours and comfortable pastels of the film so far suddenly give way to a much chillier grey-white-blue palette, as Jeff realises his predicament: seeing things in the cold light of day has never been so literal and, eventually, Jeff will also be forced to confront some equally unpleasant truths about himself.
Things are bright and cheerful on the surface, but also ominous beneath it, from the beginning. In Los Angeles, ‘Thonggrrrl14’ (Hayley) and ‘Lensman319’ (Jeff) are flirting in a chatroom; they agree to meet at a local café. Already we can tell that the teenage girl is…