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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Candy (2006)
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Candy (2006)
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Released 8-Nov-2006
This review is sponsored by
Details At A Glance
| General |
Extras |
| Category |
Drama |
Main Menu Audio & Animation
Audio Commentary-Director Neil Armfield & Writer Luke Davies
Interviews-Crew-Director Neil Armfield & Writer Luke Davies
Theatrical Trailer
Featurette-Writing On The Wall: Candy's Poem In Motion
DVD-ROM Extras-Study Guide
Gallery-Image
Trailer-Last Train To Freo, The King, Edmond, Hidden, Look Both Ways
Trailer-36 Quai des Orf`evres
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| Rating |
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Year Of Production
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2006
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| Running Time |
103:42 (Case: 85)
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RSDL
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Flipper
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RSDL (62:45)
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Cast & Crew |
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Start Up
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Menu |
| Region Coding |
4
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Directed By |
Neil Armfield
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Studio
Distributor |
Madman
Madman Entertainment
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Starring |
Abbie Cornish
Heath Ledger
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| Case |
Amaray-Transparent-S/C-Dual |
| RPI |
$34.95
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Music |
Paul Charlier
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NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.
Plot Synopsis
Luke Davies' poetic, confronting, touching, and at times harrowing semi-autobiographical novel makes a wonderful transition to the screen. Candy is a passionate love story set amongst heroin addiction that charts the harsh, mutual decline of two young lovers. Raw and powerful, along with The Proposition, Candy is undoubtedly not only one of the best Australian films of 2006, but one of the best Australian films of recent years.
Adapted from a novel by co-scripter
Luke Davies and directed by acclaimed Sydney theatre director
Neil Armfield, who also serves as co- writer, the story of
Candy is presented in a three-part structure, set out with the ominous titles:
"Heaven," "Earth," and
"Hell".
Struggling bohemian, urban poet and heroin addict Dan (Heath Ledger) is deeply in love with the angelically beautiful free-spirited artist Candy (Abbie Cornish). With a lack of sermonising, "Heaven" sweetly recounts the swooning, carefree early days of Dan and Candy's life together. The film opens with our 20-something young lovers absorbed with each other on the spinning Rotor at Luna Park. In an obvious metaphor, the spinning ride pushes them apart, and gently crushes them against the circular wall with centrifugal force.
As a heroin-snorter, Candy is on the precipice, about to launch into a downward plunge into her drug habit. Curious as to what makes injecting heroin so appealing to the man she so deeply loves, Candy insists on injecting it too, rather than sniffing her next fix. Despite a near overdose, her first words after being revived by Dan are: "Let's have some more."
Dan and Candy's reckless needle-lifestyle of drug addiction is peppered with sex, shoplifting, and the occasional artistic expression, such as Abbie's gorgeous painting entitled "The Afternoon of Extravagant Delight."
The film accepts Dan and Candy as junkies from the start, and doesn't delve too deeply into the causes. However, a visit with her parents might suggest why Candy might seek out such a self-destructive escape. While her father (Tony Martin) is caring, mild-mannered and affectionate, her mother (Noni Hazlehurst) is judgmental, cold and cruelly critical.
Dan hasn't spoken to his father in years, and instead turns to Casper (Geoffrey Rush), a witty,gay academic and delightfully overly indulgent father figure, who can always be counted on for some free drugs and spare cash. An organic chemistry professor, Casper is also a fellow junkie who wistfully observes: “When you can quit, you don’t want to, and when you want to, you can’t."
After a few heady months of shooting up, Dan and Candy decide to get married, much to the horror of Candy's parents, who already find it all too easy to blame Dan for their daughter's disturbing lifestyle. Of course the days of Heaven soon end, and "Earth" finds Dan and Candy hocking everything they own to support their increasing habit. When her grandmother's gold ring doesn't gain them enough for a day's fix, Candy sells herself. Turning to prostitution to support their habit, Candy soon finds herself working in a tacky brothel, and shooting up between clients.
When Candy discovers that she's pregnant, she and Dan bravely attempt going cold turkey. This horrifying ordeal only seems to bring them closer, but their tight dependence upon each other means one will always drag the other down.
Finally, "Hell" chronicles the sad aftermath of Candy's pregnancy, and a doomed attempt to kick their habit through methadone and a move to the country, which ends up challenging their sanity.
As a film, Candy hits hard as it sensitively shows how drugs can destroy lives, and how often the real horror of addiction is not just what the users do to themselves, but what they do to others as well. Obviously, the junkie's family and friends become victims too.
In the end, Dan must face the awful responsibility for assisting Candy in destroying her life, and the looming challenge of making his own marginally better.
Although the tone and narrative of the film is a little too erratic at times, and the story can lurch unevenly from segment to segment, Candy relies heavily on the uniformly strong acting performances of its cast to regain the script's occasional stumble. Abbie Cornish of Somersault is wonderful in the title role, but in terms of acting, the film really belongs to Heath Ledger, who dominates the film's narrative and identification. With Candy, Ledger makes his first appearance in an Australian film, acting in his own accent, since becoming an A-List Hollywood star and Oscar nominee.
Indeed, Ledger and Cornish both create vivid, multi-textured characters we can identify with. Ledger's Dan is basically a nice guy, but as Candy describes him, he's "hopeless". Dan is a weak follower, who all too quickly accepts watching his wife prostitute herself so that he can shoot up. Yet Ledger manages to make his character genuinely likeable, even as we are forced to watch him do one awful thing after another. Assisting him, Cornish skilfully provides an intriguing counterpoint and muse. Candy is an addict who can't seem to see beyond her next high. These are two likeable people who know they need to stop, but can't. Indeed, these characters are far more self-aware than in most similar films - there's no denial - they're junkies and they know it. These characters are not the usual emaciated, bedraggled, nihilistic junkie-deadbeats one sees on the streets, or at least they don't see themselves that way. Dan and Candy are in love - perennial optimists, living by the pleasure principle.
In the acting department, Ledger and Cornish are aided by the Oscar-nominated Geoffrey Rush, who expertly plays Dan's surrogate father, and dissolute gay academic, who concocts his own nasty needle cocktails while hypocritically clucking about overuse, and unintentionally dragging his followers down in his charismatic wake. In addition, Tony Martin and Noni Hazlehurst are superb as Candy's heartbroken but resolute parents.
I understand Candy spent years in development, and it shows. The film seems to have been lovingly and carefully crafted, with a great attention to detail. The exceptional work by Production Designer Robert Cousins and Art Director Laurie Faen, must be noted.
Accomplished theatre director Neil Armfield’s confident helming is expressive but suitably restrained overall. Importantly, Armfield does a nice job of infusing the film with moments of black humour, ensuring that the story never becomes overly bogged down in its grossly and inherently depressing subject matter. Armfield also deftly avoids the usual trippy drug-movie clichés of the drugsplotation film genre. For example, Armfield's brightly sunlit cinematography captures the ecstasy induced by both love and drugs.
As is typical for movies of this sort, Candy is not a happy viewing experience. It in no way glamorises drugs, effectively painting a bleak portrait of drug abuse that one expects from this genre. Candy is all about self-destruction, despair, and collapse. Admittedly, those hoping for new insights into drug addiction won't find them here. Story-wise there's nothing really new in Candy that can't be found in other gut-wrenching drug-addiction-films, such as Requiem for a Dream. Furthermore, Candy's intermingling of romance and addiction is not original either, as it echoes earlier films such as Drugstore Cowboy.
However, Candy is a great film despite the well-worn path it treads. Although director Armfield and his co-writer Davies reprise a dark exploration of the nihilistic world of addiction, they don't blunt the edginess with overly-cautionary subtext. Also, Armfield and Davies consciously choose to play to the film's obvious strength: The strong and telling acting performances of Ledger and Cornish, which turns what could have been just another drug-movie into a slightly flawed but engrossing story of love and self-destruction.
Depressing and hard to watch at times, such as the awful still-birth scene, Candy is a powerful cautionary tale exposing the harsh realities of heroin addiction, and the responsibilities that come with loving someone - whether it be a partner or child. The problem is the right people might never see it. Candy is a total feel-bad experience - and I mean that as a complement.
Don't wish to see plot synopses in the future? Change your configuration.
Transfer Quality
Video
Candy's often gritty look is provided by D.O.P Garry Phillips, and it really suits the downbeat mood of the story. This is a 2006 film, and the DVD's transfer is very good.
The PAL transfer is presented in a widescreen aspect ratio of 1.78:1. It is 16x9 enhanced.
A few scenes looked a little murky, but overall the sharpness, black level, and shadow detail are all excellent. For example, consider the detail in the brightly lit crowded shelves of the pharmacy at 72:46, or the shadowy interior of the room at night at 31:08, or the dimly-lit interior of the car at night at 63:19.
The colour and use of natural light is excellent in the film, and well-captured in the DVD's transfer. Colour is used strongly in the story telling. The skin tones are accurate.
While some film grain is present, there are no problems with MPEG or Film-To-Video Artefacts. Some small film artefacts appear throughout, but I never found them distracting.
There are no subtitles provided.
This is a single-sided, dual-layer disc, with the well-placed layer change occurring at 62:45 when the screen fades to black. The feature is divided into 13 chapters.
Video Ratings Summary
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| Film Artefacts | |
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Audio
The film's sound design is great, and the DVD's audio is excellent for a dialogue-based drama.
There are three audio options: English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s), English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s), and English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s).
The dialogue quality and audio sync are excellent.
The musical score features some unusual instrumentation, and it is credited to Paul Charlier. It suits the film well, as do the forlorn songs that appear throughout.
The surround presence and activity is limited, as this is a dialogue-heavy drama. But the rear speakers are used effectively to help carry the score and provide ambience, for example the traffic at 17:38. There are also some nicely subtle ambience effects throughout, such as the rain at 63:52.
There is not a strong LFE track, and the subwoofer never called attention to itself.
Audio Ratings Summary
| Dialogue | |
| Audio Sync | |
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| Surround Channel Use | |
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Extras
There are a few genuine extras included.
Menu
A simple menu.
Audio Commentary
Director Neil Armfield and Writer Luke Davies provide a screen-specific commentary which focuses more on the characters and story rather than the technical aspects of production.
Interview Featurette with Director and Writer (28:27)
Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced, with Dolby Digital stereo audio, this featurette focuses on a discussion of the "responsibilities of love". Director Neil Armfield and Writer Luke Davies present the story not as a moral tale, but a look at the consequences of bad choices.
Theatrical Trailer
Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced, with Dolby Digital stereo audio.
Featurette - Writing On The Wall: Candy's Poem In Motion
Abbie Cornish reads Candy's poem, while the words appear onscreen.
DVD-ROM Extras - Study Guide
DVD-ROM content.
Image Gallery
Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, with Dolby Digital stereo audio, this is a slide show of photographic stills set to music.
Madman Propaganda
Trailers for:
- Last Train To Freo
- The King
- Edmond
- Cache' (Hidden)
- Look Both Ways
- 36 Quai des Orf`evres
R4 vs R1
NOTE: To view
non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually
also NTSC compatible.
Candy is zoned R4, and there does not appear to be a R1 DVD release as yet. Candy did get a limited theatrical art-house release in the US.
Summary
Harrowing and strongly moving, this superbly acted junkie-drama beautifully explores the emotional cores of its characters. Candy is well worth viewing, and highly recommended.
The video quality is very good.
The audio quality is also very good.
The extras are limited but very good for a small budget Australian film.
| Video | |
| Audio | |
| Extras | |
| Plot | |
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© Brandon Robert Vogt (warning: bio hazard)
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
| Review Equipment |
| DVD | Pioneer DV-535, using Component output |
| Display | Samsung 106cm Plasma TV (42 Inch).
Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable.
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| Audio Decoder | Built in to amplifier/receiver.
Calibrated with Video Essentials.
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| Amplification | Sony STR DE-545 |
| Speakers | Jamo |
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