CANDY
Director: Neil Armfield Stars: Heath Ledger, Abbie Cornish, Geoffrey Rush, Noni Hazlehurst, Tony Martin
Reviewed by PETER MALONE
There have been many striking films about drug addiction in recent years from Drugstore Cowboy through Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas to Requiem For A Dream. These films show the fascination with drugs, the highs and hallucinations, the decisions about going off drugs and the experience of withdrawal. The hallucinations can be both beautiful and terrifying. Withdrawal can be a portrait of horror and pain.
They are all here in Candy. Nothing particularly new (though that should not be a criterion for dismissal as is sometimes the danger). But, the setting is an Australian one, centred in Sydney, and that gives Candy its own individuality and its appeal/communication for an Australian audience. The appeal beyond Australia is in the writing, the direction and performances.
The writing: Luke Davies has collaborated with director, Neil Armfield, to bring his novel to the screen. It is particularly Australian, frank and direct, with moments both of humour and literate style.
The direction: Neil Armfield is best known for his theatre work for several decades. His main work in cinema was a stylised adaptation of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night in the 1980s. He brings a deft hand to his work here. The film looks good and moves well. The withdrawal experience over three days and Candy’s miscarriage and its aftermath are both horrifying and persuasive.
The performances: Armfield has been able to cast four Australian Film Institute Best Acting winners. Abbie Cornish made a strong impression in Somersault (and One Perfect Day). Young, vigorous and attractive, she makes Candy a sympathetic victim of her mother’s hard love as well as acting on whims for starting on drugs and her wilfulness in continuing. Her love for Danny is palpable even though she risks losing him.
On the other hand, the film is Heath Ledger’s as Danny. He is the centre and offers the voiceover. Again, he acts on whim and is wilful – but in a far more laidback and carefree manner. He prefers to while away his life even though he has capacities for more, for more creative and intelligent work. His reaction to the miscarriage is moving.
Then there is Geoffrey Rush as a self-indulgent lecturer, a smiling but ultimately wicked father-figure, complicit in his friends’ destruction. The contrary is strongly to the fore in Noni Hazelhurst’s uptight and controlling mother, dominating her kindly husband (Tony Martin). The sequence where the couple announce Candy’s pregnancy and the mother’s silent vigilance is contrasted with the father’s hugging and passionately weeping gives strong indications of how we are to respond to these characters.
The film is divided into three parts that explain themselves: Heaven, Earth, Hell. But the film is not without hope. Hell need not be the end.