Candy (2006)

Candy is one of the most thematically effective films I have ever seen. It follows the messed up lives of a poet and an an artist (Heath Ledger and Abbie Cornish, respectively), who fall in love and become addicted to heroine. The movie presents itself in three sections: heaven, earth and hell. Each section is more painful to watch than the former. Heath Ledger and Abbie Cornish guide the viewer through a whirlwind of trials and pain that will make you never want to even say the word "heroine". The movie will leave you mentally broken. It is almost as painful to watch as the heroine withdrawals acted out by the pair, but well worth it.

"Candy" is one of these movies which left you so much to think about. While I was watching the movie mixed emotions went though me. Such like joy, delight, melancholy, disgust, sadness and sympathy. There are so realistic and horrific scenes and at the same time so beautiful and catching moments. The opening scene is one of the most beautiful things made in art of the cinema. The music, the deep and rich voice of gorgeous Heath Ledger, all the words with which he is describing the great love. The big love that raises you to heaven. And so the first stage of drug addicts is like heaven. They don't think for the consequences or the risks, not even about their heath and the people who they can hurt. All about they care about is the pleasure which they feel. The unconditional love and the heroin are blinded Dan and Candy and they don't feel how turn their direction to the ground very speedily. The hit of the realistic life on earth overturn their minds, all the sweetness and love are gone. Here they are two young persons, talented and artistic in nature, confronted to face their nude or what they've become. The most sad and hard moment for me was when Dan saw the writings on the wall by Candy about their life story. Somehow when I listen to the words and review all the story I wish I experience that kind of love, unconditional, twisting everything inside you and make you do everything about a person, who sometimes you love and sometimes you hate for being so deep inside of you. I adore the movie, so realistic and terrific, shows how drugs can ruin a human's life. Heath is wonderful, charming and gets really into the role, like always. Love him. R.I.P

Intense moments in this film really can shake an absorbed viewer to their core. "Candy" drags the viewer into the down & dirty life of heroine-addicts-in-love who are truly at the mercy of the drug, day in & day out, to the point that they resort to prostitution. If you can handle it, you'll get a fairly accurate & intimate glimpse of addiction at its worst ...full of nasty needles, self- destruction, co-dependency, death, withdrawals, poverty & the like. Heath & Abbie are devastatingly genuine & will definitely appeal to the bohemian/indie flick lovers. You can practically eat up their flaming chemistry. Some mainstream watchers with an understanding (or experience) in the subject matter will likely find this to be a moving cinematic piece as well. I would say the acting & intimacy of it all makes it stand apart from just being another "druggie movie."The ending is not necessarily "satisfying" to most, so don't see this expecting generic Hollywood entertainment.*** On Another Note *** SO sad to see this film compared to Blue Valentine!! "Blue Valentine" leads the viewer to believe in the common fallacy that one should/can get married to change or "train" their spouse instead of loving them for who they are, unconditionally. Overall the shallow & heartless tale pales in comparison to the film Candy, because Heath's character actually makes the sacrifice of love for the well-being of his wife (unlike BV.) Disappointing to see that a story about a heroine addict can be used to portray love better & truer than a shallow story about a supposedly *matured* mother.

Having seen Armfield's work in the theatre, Rush's on both stage and screen, and Cornish's in "Somersault", I came to Candy expecting big things. However, I found that the film took Australian cinema nowhere new. Once again we have the intrusive, over-used score, patronising the audience by telling us what to feel. Once again the long slow moments of blank faces. Our directors are never shy with clichés: we knew it was coming scene after scene. We could predict Cornish's hand to the mirror, the misunderstood angst of youth running from the clutches of a vulgar capitalist middle class. Here we go with the older generation, insensitive to the complexities of the artist and the poet, with outlandish expectations of stability and responsibilities.Cornish is very comfortable in the role of the angst-ridden alienated youth, where the camera loves her, and the long silences and often strident soundtrack make less demands of an actor than a script with depth and power. Ledger was as convincing in the role of the poet (albeit drug addled) as my mailman. Where was the script that enabled either of the two leads to convince us that they were driven by any kind of creative impulses. Artist? Poet? Were they even literate? The text of the voice overs was self conscious in a schoolboy poet way. But did Ledger's character read any books,ever? And as for Cornish as the tortured artist, come on! Her burst of creative literacy with the lipstick was one of the most unconvincing moments of the movie. Could this swearing monosyllabic drug addict really be hit so suddenly with the muse of poesy? Cornish is a talented young actress who demonstrated early, her willingness to work in the Australian film industry. She deserves more complex scripts, less clichéd roles and tighter directing.Did anyone else out there find Heath Ledger's voice-overs embarrassing and quaint? Did the director actually make him do that? I found Ledger's acting to be unsubtle and inconsistent. Someone should have noticed the shifts in accent and pitch, the over working of the facial expressions. Did I imagine it, or did someone choose to use Mozart's music in this film? Oh the mighty melodrama of it all. Isn't it time Australian film got past such self-conscious scripts. Time to move forward as film makers and learn a very powerful technique for making powerful films: subtlety and understatement. The best European directors discovered it decades ago!P.S. Did anyone do any research on sexual dysfunction and heroin addicts?