HARD CANDY

Fourteen-year-old Hayley meets thirty-year-old Jeff on a chat. The two decide one day to meet, and Hayley goes to Jeff's house. A great feeling immediately arises between them: the girl seems much more mature than her actual age, and Jeff, with his gentle and friendly ways, manages to put anyone at ease. But perhaps the meeting between the two was not casual, and no one is what they seem in reality. David Slade, with only two feature films to his credit, has already shown a great talent. Before the vampiric "30 Days of Night," in fact, Slade directed one of the most successful thrillers of recent years, "Hard Candy." "Hard Candy" is a surprising film for the way it manages to entertain the viewer for 100 minutes without much actually happening: there are two actors, one location, and an endless series of dialogues. That's all. Yet the result is really good; this clarifies that high budgets and particularly attractive names do not make a film a good film, but rather a good idea, solid direction, an engaging screenplay, and actors with talent. Naturally, Slade's film has all of this. The film's subject is simply brilliant and is well explained by the effective movie poster: a young girl, a modern Little Red Riding Hood, finds herself in the middle of a bear trap devised by the big bad wolf. But Little Red Riding Hood is shown from behind, a sign of distrust, and hides her mysterious face behind the hood, as with high probability, behind that scarlet hood there is not a defenseless girl who has lost her way, but that is merely a cover, a mask. The Canadian sociologist Erving Goffman formulated a theory according to which everyday life can be compared to a theatrical performance and the individual (whom he called "social actor") is called upon to interpret the roles that society, in general, and the situation, in particular, require. Slade does nothing but affirm and negate this theory at the same time, bringing on stage the typical "in the room" situation, a stage setting, and a narrative construction that has much of the theatrical, transforming the lives of his characters into a stage performance. The same first impression that the characters have on the viewer is what the viewer would expect: emancipated and intelligent girl she (listens to John Mayer, loves the Monty Python movies), modern and responsible man he (believes that relationships born on the internet are more genuine, is a photographer). But the screenplay has fun breaking in a few minutes all the certainties and expectations that the viewer had accumulated in the previous minutes, and here we are dealing with a mutation in the characters and actions of the characters that the narrative context (and hence social custom) had not required at all: who is the wolf? The screenplay, written by Brian Nelson (a lot of TV and "30 Days of Night"), is the classic example of a perfect screenplay, in which there are no dead times, the characters are outlined in a credible and satisfying manner, and the numerous dialogues manage to be interesting and intelligent. Naturally, much of the film's success goes to the two lead actors, Patrick Wilson ("The Phantom of the Opera") and Ellen Page ("Juno"), who give their characters charisma and credibility. Above all, the young Ellen Page proves to be a versatile and highly talented actress, probably one of the most gifted currently on the market. Slade, for his part, does an excellent job of directing. The direction of the actors and some unusual lighting and framing choices further enhance the film. We must not overlook the fact that the film is effectively fierce, dealing with the delicate theme of pedophilia with great naturalness, without descending into gratuitous moralism and sensationalistic exploitation of a taboo subject. The physical and especially psychological tortures that appear in "Hard Candy" really make the viewer "sweat cold," without showing any blood or guts, demonstrating that emotional suggestion is more effective when applied to the unseen. Slade's first feature film is dated 2005, but it was released in Italy only three years later and for the home video market only, probably riding the growing success that the lead actress Ellen Page (star of the Oscar-winning "Juno") is having. It's a shame to see products of such high quality "wasted" for invisible home video releases when cinemas are filled with trivia often thought specifically for DVD distribution ("Boogeyman 2: The Return of the Black Man" docet). The only advice is to retrieve this pearl of contemporary thriller at all costs.