Candy

Though Candy starts out as a typically oppressive flick about junkies, the film ultimately establishes itself as a surprisingly engaging and emotionally wrenching piece of work. Featuring a pair of absolutely phenomenal performances from Heath Ledger and Abbie Cornish, the film follows their drug-addicted characters – Ledger’s Dan and Cornish’s Candy – as they attempt to form something resembling a normal life. Director Neil Armfield does a nice job of infusing the film with moments of levity, effectively ensuring that the whole thing never becomes bogged down in its inherently depressing subject matter. Ledger and Cornish are flat-out riveting; far more impressive, however, is the apparent ease with which they’re able to turn their admittedly sleazy characters into figures worthy of the viewer’s sympathy. And although the film sort of overstays its welcome – at a certain point, Armfield’s emphasis on Candy and Dan’s despair transforms Candy into precisely the kind overly bleak portrait of drug abuse that one expects from this genre – there’s certainly no denying the effectiveness of Ledger and Cornish’s work here (Cornish is undoubtedly headed towards the mainstream success that fellow Aussies Nicole Kidman and Naomi Watts have achieved).

*** out of ****