Here's the all around best film about drug addicts since Gus Van Sant's 1989 cult hit, "Drugstore Cowboy." Specifically with reference to heroin addiction (the characters in "Cowboy" were polysubstance prescription drug addicts), "Candy" offers a far more representative and fully developed picture of that particular addiction than many of its predecessors, like "Man With the Golden Arm," "High Art," "Requiem for a Dream" or the recent film, "Clean," and it holds its own when compared with "Trainspotting" and "Pure," two of the all time best junkie films.
Though it's a love story, "Candy's" narrative arc is in fact the arc of addiction itself. Dan (Heath Ledger), an addicted slacker, meets and falls in love with Candy (Abbie Cornish), a beautiful artist, truly a vision of womanly perfection, candy for the eye and the heart, among other organs. I suppose Candy sees in Dan what some vulnerable women all too often find attractive: somebody to dote upon and look after, possibly rehabilitate, change into the man of her dreams. We then follow the couple through the bliss of early love, then marriage, then down the rabbit hole into ever more serious mutual addiction, for Candy almost begs to be initiated into heroin use early on.
Don't get me wrong, though. This is no cut and dried clinical saga. It may resemble many heartbreaking case histories, but this story is well written and well acted; it's got sturdy dramatic legs to stand on. Apart from being drop dead gorgeous, Ms. Cornish gives a highly skilled turn. She goes through so many poignant changes, ranging from naïf to drug addled vixen.
Mr. Ledger, fresh off his astonishing performance in "Brokeback Mountain," here gives us another troubled, morose character not unlike "Brokeback's" Ennis or his earlier, smaller role as the suicidal Sonny in "Monster's Ball." Ledger needs to watch out lest he become typecast as an actor for depressive characters. But he is so good at them! Aiding the proceedings is a splendid supporting turn by Geoffrey Rush as Casper the friendly dope maker, a chemistry professor who has turned his skills to perfecting designer opioids.
The ending is so similar to that in "Drugstore Cowboy" that I suspect a homage was planned. But that takes nothing away from the dramatic appropriateness of "Candy's" wrap up. Mark this one down as one of the best psychflix ever made about addictions. My grades: 8.5/10 (A-)(Seen on 12/09/06)
Though it's a love story, "Candy's" narrative arc is in fact the arc of addiction itself. Dan (Heath Ledger), an addicted slacker, meets and falls in love with Candy (Abbie Cornish), a beautiful artist, truly a vision of womanly perfection, candy for the eye and the heart, among other organs. I suppose Candy sees in Dan what some vulnerable women all too often find attractive: somebody to dote upon and look after, possibly rehabilitate, change into the man of her dreams. We then follow the couple through the bliss of early love, then marriage, then down the rabbit hole into ever more serious mutual addiction, for Candy almost begs to be initiated into heroin use early on.
Don't get me wrong, though. This is no cut and dried clinical saga. It may resemble many heartbreaking case histories, but this story is well written and well acted; it's got sturdy dramatic legs to stand on. Apart from being drop dead gorgeous, Ms. Cornish gives a highly skilled turn. She goes through so many poignant changes, ranging from naïf to drug addled vixen.
Mr. Ledger, fresh off his astonishing performance in "Brokeback Mountain," here gives us another troubled, morose character not unlike "Brokeback's" Ennis or his earlier, smaller role as the suicidal Sonny in "Monster's Ball." Ledger needs to watch out lest he become typecast as an actor for depressive characters. But he is so good at them! Aiding the proceedings is a splendid supporting turn by Geoffrey Rush as Casper the friendly dope maker, a chemistry professor who has turned his skills to perfecting designer opioids.
The ending is so similar to that in "Drugstore Cowboy" that I suspect a homage was planned. But that takes nothing away from the dramatic appropriateness of "Candy's" wrap up. Mark this one down as one of the best psychflix ever made about addictions. My grades: 8.5/10 (A-)(Seen on 12/09/06)