Yesterday I saw Candy in theatre. Before I'll say something about the movie itself, I have to say that I was puzzled and displeased by the release politics.
The first week of release it was played in only two cinemas in my wider region (and there are forty of them), but at least every day and at regular times. The second week it is played only in one (!) cinema, only three times the week and at the ungodly hour of 11pm. Frustrating.
Short notice for those who don't want to know anything about the movie: it's well worth seeing it. Go and see it, I highly recommend it. It is intense and moving.
And now stop reading.
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No plot spoilers, but from here on, you get to know something more about the movie and the characters
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Candy is very intense. It's a love-story and junkie-drama. On one side it doesn't show us anything we haven't known/seen before on this topic. But most drug-dramas are too deliberate, too blatant in showing how bad drugs are. The audience is beaten over the head with the simple morale "drugs are bad and dangerous". Not with Candy.
Somehow the reviewers on IMDB have another impression by it. Most of them claim it to be THE movie to be shown to young audiences in aim too keep youngsters from using/trying drugs (or something along these lines). I can't agree with that. But maybe this is caused by my own experiences.
On the love-story theme and the characters: awwww, they are so sweet! Their love is the counterpart to their addiction. It is not all rosy and happy (obviously) but they are just lovable together.
I love the character of Dan. Despite all his faults, he loves Candy dearly and is such a sweet and witty guy. And I guess it helps that he looks like Heath, lol
Candy is a bit more "rattier" (the word is not exactly what I mean, therefore the quotation marks), I think she can have a sharp tongue with people who are not to her gusto. And there's something about her we never get to know, some sense of previous drama.
The acting:
Do I have to say something about Heath? Guess I don't
He's great, he is Dan all the time. Maybe my vision is a bit blurred by my partiality for Heath and the fact that in this movie he looks more like himself than in BBM, but I don't think so.
And Abbie Cornish is just as astonishing as Heath. You can see everything in her face.
The movie is open in many aspects, what I like in movies. But in two aspects I believe it to be a flaw. The first one: Candy's relationship to her mother is distant and difficult. In one scene, Candy accuses her mother of having destroyed her live. But we never come to know if in fact something has happened, or why their relationship is as it is. Not even clues in that question.
The second one I won't tell you, because it would be a spoiler. If anyone wants to know (or has already seen Candy), you can pm me.
At the beginning, the shaky hand-held camera drove me nuts. But either it stopped or I was so much into the movie that I didn't notice it any more.
***Minor spoiler, but I think you have already heard about it***
The miscarriage scene is really, really hard to watch. It is not disgusting or drastic in the sense of bloody (you see something, but nothing too bad). But it is the characters reactions, their feelings, their black despair (and the fact that it is so superbly acted by Heath and Abby) that makes it hard to bear.