The 5 Stages of Jeff

WARNING!!!!

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!

YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!!!



Even those who have never heard the name Elisabeth Kubler-Ross probably know the five stages of grief she described: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Those stages also describe Jeff's character arc in "Hard Candy."

Denial: After he's drugged and tied in the chair, most of what he says is pure denial. He makes excuses and comes up with reasons for his behavior, all lies, like why he didn't talk to the women in the chat room as soon as he found out they were older than Hayley. He says, "I'm a decent guy, ask anyone." Can't get much more textbook than that when it comes to denial.

Anger: We see flashes of this througout, but very soon after the line quoted above, Hayley starts really tearing into him and his anger rises to the surface. Cut to scene in bedroom, and we see, while he is still trying to convince her that she's wrong, his anger is barely contained now, his denials are not calm and reasonable any longer, but screamed at her. From that point on, anger tinges everything. Hayley even mocks him, saying, "A little angry, are we?"

Bargaining: This one should be obvious. He's tied to a table. She tells him she's going to castrate him. He begs. He pleads. He promises he'll turn himself in, he'll do anything she wants. Actually, even before he knows what she's planning, he tells her to call the cops, he'll go to jail.

Depression: This is a tough one, because it's hard to keep the action moving, but while Hayley is "castrating" Jeff, he lies there, dormant, silent. The fight has gone out of him. When she asks him if he wants some souveniers, holding his "testicles" in front of him, he doesn't respond. He cries. But, life goes on and he's not down for the count. Denial and anger return, especially anger.

Acceptance: "You're right. You're right, Hayley. Thank you. Thank you. This is me. This is who I am. Thank you. Thank you for helping me see it." Directly from the film.

Of course, after that, there's only one stage left to go: death.

From the moment he woke up, or at least from the moment that he figured out just what Hayley knew about him, Jeff, like someone given a terminal diagnosis, knew that his life was over. For her part, Hayley was as steady and constant as a disease, eating away at him. Or, if you prefer, an avenging angel of death. She offered him no comfort, no solace, no understanding, but only the one option that would cure him--the grave. The one time she seems to sincerely apologize it's for teasing him. She shouldn't have, she says, let him think that there was a way out. Even as he dances at the end of a rope, she doesn't give him any peace, revealing that she isn't going to clean anything up and that in death everyone will know just what he is.

The viewer is left to wonder whether or not he has the time to accept this final new reality of his short life.