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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.
"Candy" won't make anyone forget "Trainspotting" (1996) or "Requiem for a Dream" (2000), but nor will "Candy" let those who see it soon forget the experience.
There's no moment that truly feels original until Candy's climactic breakdown at the end of the movie. By then, it's too late.
...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.
Just because you're a poet and in love and jamming spikes in your veins in the deepest downest underer, it doesn't make you Nick Cave.
Though it's a well-worn story, Candy does touch on a universal anxiety. For two people basking in the heat of an all-consuming love, what happens when the power gets cut off?
Think of this warts-and-all misadventure as the cinematic equivalent of a 'Just Say No' public service announcement.
It's one thing for a movie to show us the perils of addiction. It's another for it to give us two people who can't seem to find any joy in it.
Candy is a terribly obvious road-to-ruin movie that's bound to produce cavities.
The question is whether "Candy" is intended to be an honest and unflinching look at the junkie life, or merely trying to top "Trainspotting" and its ilk.
Unfortunately too many elements of this Australian feature have been recycled from other addiction stories...
[Heath Ledger] is alive and awake and interesting every minute of Candy.
Candy doesn't just accidentally fall into addiction, she takes that path deliberately and doesn't want to get off the train, and we're never really given a reason to understand the whys and wherefores of her actions.
Never mind the neo-psychedelic-pop soundtrack and occasional double-vision cinematography: Dope just can't account for the film's fried brain cells.
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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