Hard Candy

Viva Vigilante! Ever since Charles Bronson did Death Wish it's been a genre all its own. Who doesn't want to see the tables turned - sniveling prey snarling into predator? The Collective We (downtrodden regular folks) just love to see somebody take the situation in hand, and give the bad guy, or The Man, not just the finger but the whole fist. Pretty formula stuff, usually involving men's men and guns and bad guys complete with do-rags/tattoos/insert your creepy fetish here. But how about a vigilante story with a charming, 30-something photographer and a sweet-faced 14 year old girl?

Hard Candy is a nifty little film that could have been a nifty little play. From the moment our baby Hayley (Ellen Page) agrees to meet Jeff (Patrick Wilson,) the older guy she met on the internet, you know something's just not right. Misgivings continue - flirtatious wordplay at the coffee shop, his home/studio adorned completely with photos of nymphets, alcohol. But just when you know what's going to happen next, the film veers off into another dimension. Little Hayley has a dark side, and a mission. Suddenly you find yourself wondering - is Jeff a pedophile about to get what he deserves or the victim of a teenage Lizzie Borden?

Page and Wilson play off one another nearly perfectly. She delivers just the right note of teenage righteousness and invincibility. Wilson, a trained stage actor, sweats and screams, and is equal parts frightening and pathetic. Two people, four rooms and I dare you to look away or guess the ending. A little bonus - a haunting original score. See the website here.