Reel Review

Candy (2006)

"When you can stop, you don't want to. When you want to, you can't."
So says Geoffrey Rush in the Australian drama Candy. Rush, playing a scientist who supplies a young couple (Abbie Cornish and Heath Ledger) with some of their drugs, is speaking of heroin—the lovers' drug of choice—but he could also be speaking about the movie itself. Directed by Neil Armfield, Candy is totally engrossing, romantic, and horrifying. It's a very disturbing film, one that explicitly portrays the hell of drug addiction. It's also, thanks to Cornish and Ledger, extremely compelling.

Cornish, who made a wonderful impression earlier this year in Somersault, stars as Candy, a beautiful young painter from a respectable middle-class family. She falls in love with Dan (Ledger), a poet and junkie, who introduces her to heroin. Before long, she's totally hooked on the stuff, despite overdosing on it in one particularly frightening scene. From there, it's a downward spiral as Candy and Dan turn to robbery and prostitution to support their habit, and wind up getting evicted from their skid row apartment. Meanwhile, Candy's parents (Noni Hazlehurst and Tony Martin) watch in horror as their daughter, once full of potential, struggles with her addiction.

The acting in Candy is what makes the film, and it's terrific across the board. Ledger, who was phenomenal in Brokeback Mountain, delivers a passionate performance that more than makes up for his appearance in the lamass Casanova, the film he made right after Brokeback. Rush doesn't have much screen time, but he's his usual reliable self, gleefully playing a drug-addicted gay scientist. But the star of the film is Cornish. As in Somersault, her portrayal of a young woman under duress is spot-on. Although the movie is told from Dan's point of view (complete with an unobtrusive voiceover narration), it's really Candy's story. It's about a young woman who falls in love with both a man and a substance that are ultimately no good for her—and who must decide whether or not to help herself…before it's too late.

Beautifully shot and wonderfully directed, Candy is a gut-wrenching, sobering, and passionate look at relationships, addiction, and one woman's journey down the rabbit hole.

— BRIE BEAZLEY