Today something dawned on me: in order to play Joker these days, one has to have something to do with drugs. In April this year the iconic Joker of The Dark Knight, Heath Ledger would have been 43 years old. Alas, the deadly mix of drugs in January 2008 cancelled such possibility. Live fast, die young. Today we have Joaquin Phoenix, who’s Joker is dependent on medication. And then there’s of course the inappropriately romantic Joker of Requiem for a Dream’s Jared Leto, who’s head-over-heels in love with Harley Quinn. Why I say it’s inappropriate is because no other of known Jokers in cinema seem to be pursuing real love affairs that at least resemble actual romantic relationships. In the chemistry between Jared Leto and Margot Robbie I seem to recognize something a bit familiar, something I have seen before somewhere; namely the best rosy moments in the relationship between Heath Ledger’s poet Dan and Abbie Cornish’s artist Candy in a movie called Candy.
Candy was a debut for Neil Armfield as a movie director. The name is well known in Australian theatre and opera. Moreover, most of the movie’s script was written by the author Luke Davies on who’s novel the picture was based. Furthermore, Candy had been produced by someone with a well known name in Australian movie industry – Margaret Fink. Overall, this sounds like a promising team of developers. And yet, while the film does live up to its tag as a romantic drama, I feel like many times it’s telling a story from the point of view of a middle aged uncle who always likes to give you advice that’s in your best interests regarding how to live your life. Or, in this case, why using is not a good idea. And that with a concern about not harming you with too much details about it.
Drug abuse is never a good idea. Affairs with narcotics never end well. There are so many documentaries that will tell you why it’s not a good idea. Which is what brings me to saying that a work of fiction should take a different approach. Candy kinda tries that, but never really drifts far off the family friendly version of victims of drug abuse – something one can watch safely with their teenage kids and discuss afterwards. People are addicted to something that makes them feel good? Show they are after the dragon, but don't show the dragon and its environment. Someone happened to resort to infidelity, or prostitution? Tell, don’t show. Candy and Dan felt high on love? Tell, and show a bit of that. The secret glue, found by them, that held everything together somehow seems to look like a prosaic pool. The event of great potential with uncanny and alarming beauty of being alive and dead at the same time ends up being a trivial sleep in bathtub with a worried boyfriend saving the day there, providing the scene with its intended meaning. Candy is full of hints at what has happened, or what is going on, but the actual events sometimes are left completely to viewer’s imagination resulting in a sterile and watered down version of human experience. Another of striking examples of that is when Candy shouts at her mom about clinching fists since the age of 6. This is never explained in the movie. (Or perhaps I missed something there?) Arguments like that, tribulations and anxiety, which is often "a full time job", are getting a considerable amount of screen time - more than the good times. The story's flow isn't always steady; sometimes it feels like a fast forward version of the novel while at other times it's notably preoccupied with things like cold turkey. All of this gives me a reason to speculate that there'd been too much to tell for a feature film, and it could make a decent material for tv series.
Geoffrey Rush as Casper in Candy. Source
So, if it’s all so bad, and sterile, why waste time writing all this? Well, because of the cast in the first place. We indeed get a great company here. Heath Ledger is doing great as an epitome of useless and trying. Pirates of the Caribbean’s Geoffrey Rush plays a somewhat outlandish intellectual, a university professor Casper; if you liked his character in Quills, you might like him in Candy too, albeit he’s not keen on proving his points in this movie. One of the best scenes is where Dan asks Casper to provide tips for becoming a male escort, but eventually ends up scooping 7000 AUD in a very different way. Then there are Candy’s parents: Noni Hazlehurst as the mom, and Tony Martin as dad. I found Ms. Hazlehurst’s performance to be one that’s the most genuine: you could end up believing that Abbie Cornish is her actual daughter, and that she’s been through similar life experience herself as a parent. Meanwhile, Mr. Martin does a no less genuine job as the father-in-law. And while we are on the subject of Tony Martin’s performances, I can recommend a tell-don’t-show type of a story driven, low budget Aussie gem The Interview from 1998, starring Hugo Weaving.
Abbie Cornish as Candy and Heath Ledger as Dan in Candy. Source
Candy, same as Requiem for a Dream, has got a good soundtrack, and the movie is also divided into three chapters: Heaven, Earth and Hell. These stories never end with just one chapter.
Peer Ynt
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That film has very succesful actors. Heath and Geoffrey are my liked actors. I'll watch that film because I watched Requiem for a dream, I liked other film.
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