"I guess everyone kinda has a Janelle" (Hard Candy Review)

*Warning!* Spoilers! I watched Hard Candy tonight. The film starts off as a Lolita for the new millennium. A 14 year old girl chats up a 32 year old man online, and they decide to meet at a coffee shop. She teases him by showing herself only in a bra, writes sexually suggestive things online, asks him to bend over and beg her to come over, etc. The man is very attractive, not what you would consider a pedophile. He is a photographer, very hip looking. He seems slightly conflicted - he is definitely interested in the girl, Hayley, but knows he shouldn't do anything.

Hayley invites herself to his house to listen to some Goldfrapp bootlegs he has (lol). She convinces him to photograph her, and she blasts some beats from the stereo and starts dancing "like she is in one of those videos." The man, Jeff, gets dizzy and falls over. When he comes to, he is tied up to a chair. Turns out Hayley drugged his screwdriver. All of this happens within the first twenty minutes of the film.

The next hour and twenty minutes is her torturing Jeff. She is convinced he is a pedophile and tears up his house for the evidence. Eventually she finds a photo of a girl, whose name she knows (but I forget), inside a secret safe. The girl has been missing, and this is probably the last photo taken of her. Hayley flips and begins the process of prepping to castrate Jeff. The next half an hour is her talking to him about what a pervert he is and her teasing him with beginning to castrate and then stopping. Finally she does it. She cuts off his testicles. You don't see anything, but I still almost vomited.

At this point in the movie, you almost feel bad for the guy. I really didn't believe he was a pedophile. A questionable photographer, yes. Sort of creepy? Yes. But did he rape children? Not so sure. And Hayley surely seems psychotic. Hayley decides to shower after the castration, which gives Jeff some time to get out of the ropes with which he is tied. He looks down to find that she has merely pinched his testicles with some sort of thick paper clip/holder to cut off the feeling. He is relieved, and is ready to attack Hayley. He goes to the shower, where she surprises him and electrocutes him.

So more violence ensues, more struggle. She gets him onto the roof and tells him he can either hang himself or have his long lost love (Janelle) find out that he is a pedophile. (She had called Janelle and acted like a police officer to get her to race over to the house.) Jeff asks her who she is, really. She says: "I am every little girl you’ve ever watched, hurt, touched, screwed, killed." Jeff responds, "I didn't kill her, I only watched" and instantly you get spooked. He says, "I can tell you his name" but Hayley says she already knows it, and that "he said the exact same thing." The implied is obvious - she killed Jeff's conspirator, the man who was with Jeff when that girl from the earlier photo died. She then hands Jeff the rope, and he hangs himself off the side of the roof as Janelle is calling his name looking for him.

The film ends, and I am left disturbed. For most of the film I hated the girl. Torture isn't acceptable, ever. But then I thought about the film as a rape revenge film, and found myself much more able to stomach what just happened. By the end of the closing scene, which ends with one of my favorite Blonde Redhead songs, I felt really neutral towards the girl. I sympathized with her, yet continued to think she was insane. In the end, I think I was just glad the movie was over.

The next movie I watch needs to be fluffy. This was rough.