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Candy

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Candy (2006)

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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.

Runtime: 1 hr 48 mins

Genre: Dramas

US Box Office: $0

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

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Reviews for Candy

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1 - 20 (sorted by source; Australian critics are listed first)
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N/R

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Full Review Source: In Film Australia | comment Comment
11/15/06
In Film Australia
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Watching Neil Armfield's beautifully directed film Candy is a little like looking through a window and watching pain.

Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | comment Comment
06/15/06
Urban Cinefile Critics
Urban Cinefile Critics
Urban Cinefile
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

"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.

Full Review Source: Arizona Daily Star | comment Comment
01/11/07
Phil Villarreal
Phil Villarreal
Arizona Daily Star

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.

Full Review Source: Arizona Republic | comment Comment
12/30/06
Kerry Lengel
Kerry Lengel
Arizona Republic

...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.

Full Review Source: Associated Press | comment Comment
12/01/06
Christy Lemire
Christy Lemire
Associated Press
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution | comment Comment
05/12/07
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

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.

Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle | comment Comment
12/14/06
Marc Savlov
Marc Savlov
Austin Chronicle

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?

Full Review Source: AV Club | comment Comment
11/17/06
Noel Murray
Noel Murray
AV Club

It leaves Ledger and Cornish all smacked up with nowhere to go.

Full Review Source: BBC | comment Comment
11/11/06
Jamie Russell
Jamie Russell
BBC

Think of this warts-and-all misadventure as the cinematic equivalent of a 'Just Say No' public service announcement.

Full Review Source: BlackFilm.com | comment Comment
12/27/06
Kam Williams
Kam Williams
BlackFilm.com

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.

Full Review Source: Boston Globe | comment Comment
12/01/06
Wesley Morris
Wesley Morris
Boston Globe
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix | comment Comment
04/23/09
Peter Keough
Peter Keough
Boston Phoenix

Candy is a terribly obvious road-to-ruin movie that's bound to produce cavities.

Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | comment Comment
11/17/06
Kevin Courrier
Kevin Courrier
Boxoffice Magazine

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.

Full Review Source: Capital Times (Madison, WI) | comment 1 Comment
01/04/07
Rob Thomas
Rob Thomas
Capital Times (Madison, WI)

Unfortunately too many elements of this Australian feature have been recycled from other addiction stories...

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
12/01/06
J. R. Jones
J. R. Jones
Chicago Reader

[Heath Ledger] is alive and awake and interesting every minute of Candy.

Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune | comment Comment
11/30/06
Michael Phillips
Michael Phillips
Chicago Tribune

Rehab comes not a moment too soon.

Full Review Source: Christian Science Monitor | comment Comment
11/30/06
Peter Rainer
Peter Rainer
Christian Science Monitor

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.

Full Review Source: Cinematical | comment Comment
09/23/06
Kim Voynar
Kim Voynar
Cinematical
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: City Pages, Minneapolis/St. Paul | comment Comment
08/19/09
Jim Ridley
Jim Ridley
City Pages, Minneapolis/St. Paul

Never mind the neo-psychedelic-pop soundtrack and occasional double-vision cinematography: Dope just can't account for the film's fried brain cells.

Full Review Source: City Pages, Minneapolis/St. Paul | comment Comment
11/20/06
Rob Nelson
Rob Nelson
City Pages, Minneapolis/St. Paul
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by source; Australian critics are listed first)
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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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