MovieChat Forums > Hard Candy (2006) Discussion > Him thanking her pulled the movie down

Him thanking her pulled the movie down

posted 9 years ago by Nerdglaze420
2 replies | jump to latest

That scene was really cheesy and not credible. Even if we accept gratitude as a sentiment he would have (some kind of Stockholm Syndrome perhaps), him saying it out loud was just silly. This really harmed the movie because it destroyed the tension created by the moral ambiguity of the whole thing. Not only does the movie tell us that Hailey was right all the time and he's a disgusting, murdering, sick, woman-hating pig, but it would have us believe that Jeff himself agrees with that assessment. The moral situation becomes black and white, and a movie dwelling on the punishment of someone everybody would agree is a villain by someone everybody would agree is a hero is a pretty lame idea, and a little bit sick as well.

The movie is still quite watchable, it is well-paced and suspenseful and the acting especially of Ellen Page is superb. But I think it could have been much better with just a little bit more ambiguity.

[–] mywhychromosome 9 years ago

I agree, I actually read the screenplay before seeing the movie, and especially experiencing it that way, it really seems like the ambiguity of the whole thing is the point. That is, up until the 3rd act when it kind of loses its nerve and backs off into black-and-white spell-it-out-for-me-isms that really seem like the opposite of the type of movie it had thus far established it self to be. It's still an "effective" ending, as such, but it could've really gone from a great/very good movie into the stratosphere.

[–] mywhychromosome 9 years ago

Although I will add that, in my opinion, the actual "this is who I am...thank you" scene works, mostly because of the actor's desperation/reveal that he sees every female (and especially young ones) as Janelle, and also, when he literally says "thank you", he's still being sarcastic at that point. He has had a reveal because of what's happened, but he's still intending to kill her at that point. That said, still agreed about the ambiguity.