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Candy (2006)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:74
Fresh:36
Rotten:38
Average Rating:5.8/10
Consensus: Stars Heath Ledger and Abbie Cornish look better than they should as heroin addicts, and their characters are too absorbed and self-pitying to be totally compelling.
Synopsis: In Neil Armfield's CANDY, Heath Ledger and Abbie Cornish play Dan and Candy, two young bohemians who fall madly in love while shooting heroin together. In the beginning, the couple's days are... In Neil Armfield's CANDY, Heath Ledger and Abbie Cornish play Dan and Candy, two young bohemians who fall madly in love while shooting heroin together. In the beginning, the couple's days are occupied with making love, shoplifting, and having a strung-out wedding day that ends with a lot of giggling over a couple of Big Macs. Despite Candy's disapproving parents, they cling to each other with a fierceness that shuts out any and all outside criticism. When funds or drugs are low they pop by the house of a pharmacology professor named Casper (Geoffrey Rush), who uses his professional expertise to supply them with pharmaceutical-grade heroin. As the reality of their addiction creeps to the forefront, they must turn to desperate measures to get their fix. Candy becomes a prostitute, and Dan a thief and con man. When Candy discovers she's pregnant, they decide to go cold turkey, but the horrific side effects of withdrawal result in a miscarriage. The two tumble into despair, and opt to move to the country to try methadone treatments. Candy's depression soon blooms into a full-blown nervous breakdown, and as her parents finally usher her into rehab, Dan returns to his friend Casper for comfort, only to find him dead of an overdose. Heroin abuse--with its soaring highs and inevitable crash--has been well-documented in many films. However, CANDY brings something fresh to the story with its focus on the doomed junkie love affair. Candy and Dan tumble into each other much in the same way they descend into addiction--with a white-hot, desperate need that blinds them to reality. It's a moving, realistic portrait of how that kind of all-encompassing, obsessive love can sometimes be just as powerful as any drug, and just as hard to kick. [More]
Starring: Heath Ledger, Abbie Cornish, Geoffrey Rush, Paul Blackwell
Starring: Heath Ledger, Abbie Cornish, Geoffrey Rush, Paul Blackwell, Tom Budge, Nathaniel Dean, Sandy Winton
Director: Neil Armfield
Director: Neil Armfield
Producer: Emile Sherman, Margaret Fink
Studio: ThinkFilm
Reviews for Candy
Watching Neil Armfield's beautifully directed film Candy is a little like looking through a window and watching pain.
Davies has no new insights into the heroin spiral, but this silly melodrama benefits from the palpable chemistry between Ledger and Cornish
Doesn't deviate much from the downward-spiral norm, but benefits hugely from an atypically loose performance by Heath Ledger.
Ledger’s first film since the one-two punch of Brokeback and Casanova reinforces the almost always accurate admonition “Just say no to drug addiction films.”
The performances are good, but it would be hard to recommend this to anyone unless you have a lovely daughter who's dating a sleaze-bag and you want her to watch it as a deterrent.
Director Armfield coaxes excellent performances from his performers, almost making up for the thinness of the material
...Because we never had a strong handle on who all these people were at the beginning, it's difficult to care about whether they're capable of redemption in the end.
In the end, Candy is a little too sweet and not quite harmful enough to the audience's health.
... although there are some very striking moments in Neil Armfield's debut, there are simply not enough to keep us absorbed the way a movie should.
Though studded with strong moments, ultimately has the feel of a harder, more unflinching version of a monitory after-school special.
An Australian drama about two lovers addicted to heroin that offers no fresh insights into this obsession.
It doesn't register as strongly as director Neil Armfield might have intended, and that may simply be due to the dog-eared nature of the material.
Unfortunately too many elements of this Australian feature have been recycled from other addiction stories...
Latest News for Candy
March 13, 2007:
"Candy" Girl to be Bond's Next Flame?
Just in time for the DVD release of "Casino Royale" comes word, via IGN, of rumors regarding who'll vamp it up opposite Daniel Craig in the inevitable next Bond movie.... More...
December 07, 2006:
A Few Random "Dark Knight" Nuggets
Poor Heath Ledger is out there on the circuit trying to promote his indie flick "Candy" -- and all he's getting are "The Dark Knight" questions! Ah well, I... More...
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