After his Oscar-nominated performance in Brokeback Mountain and before his posthumous Oscar win for The Dark Knight, the late Heath Ledger turned in another award-worthy performance in Candy, a searing and intense 2006 drama that was the most harrowing look at the horror of drug addiction since Requiem for a Dream.This is the story of Dan (Ledger), a talented poet who is doing nothing with his gift and Candy (Abbie Cornish), a struggling artist who has also put her talent on the back burner due to her relationship with Dan and their addiction to heroine and how it has completely dominated their lives. All of the questions related to addiction are addressed here in an in-your-face manner that is quite disturbing. Not only do we get to see Candy prostitute herself in order to support t heir habit, but we also see Candy challenge Dan to do the same. It's aggravating as we watch the hypocritical Dan get high with money that Candy earned on her back but he's unwilling to do the same. There is one surprisingly clever vignette where Dan happens upon a wallet on the front seat of a car and when it contains no cash, goes through an extremely elaborate ruse in order to extract the information he needs from the owner in order to use the credit cards that were in the wallet. As clever as Dan is here, it is also a little pathetic because you find yourself wishing that he could be this resourceful doing something positive or productive.What is so riveting about Dan and Candy's story is that we can tell from the beginning of the film that their relationship is doomed, but it doesn't keep the viewer from becoming completely enveloped in their story. We watch as they actually marry (the camera smartly pans the guests during the vows and the various reactions are telling) and watch the intensely mixed emotions from Candy's parents when Candy announces that she is pregnant. Her father's reaction to the new is just gut-wrenching. It's sad watching how Candy's parents can see that Candy's relationship with Dan is beginning to destroy their lives, but hold their tongues so long that when they finally confront the truth, it's too late.The most telling and most pathetic aspect of Dan and Candy's story is their constant talk about changing their lives and their half- hearted attempts to stop using so that they can. The scenes of Dan and Candy trying to quit cold-turkey, documented in days, is not an easy watch, but a realistic depiction of the physical effects of heroine and how the body craves it like medicine. Director Neil Armfield does not shy away from these scenes and the camera-work from above their bed is extremely effective.Ledger delivers a brilliant and intensely unhinged performance as Dan, which includes a credible British accent. Ledger pulls out all the stops here, making Dan a dangerous combination of smart and sexy and pathetic. Abbie Cornish is blistering and explosive as Candy, the addict who wants to blame Dan and anything else she can think of for what she's going through, in deep denial about the depth of her own addiction. Geoffrey Rush does a small but flashy turn as Dan and Candy's friend/dealer/enabler, whose willingness to help Dan and Candy feed their addiction seems to be stemmed in his sexual attraction to Dan.This is a bold and uncompromising look at drug addiction that pulls no punches and offers no easy answers, but is riveting entertainment for those who are game, thanks to evocative direction and brilliant performances from the stars.

I've seen this movie a few times now over the years, and each time it grows on me more and more. It joins the other few films of it's sort; Requiem for a Dream, Trainspotting, etc. Movies that treat drug addiction in a real sense are few and far between. The difference between these films and others is that the character's show the true desperation of such addictions.This is one of those movies that rely's heavily on it's performance's and in that respect Heath Ledger is amazing. The raw feeling that he brings to his character shows that he really was one of the best actors of his generation. Looking at the difference's is the roles he played from William Thatcher in "A Knight's Tale" and Sonny Grotowski in "Monster's Ball". Geoffrey Rush, who is one of my favorite actors, gives another of his famous performances that he makes his own. Hint to all the reader's out there if you see a role and can't imagine anyone else in that role, then that actor or actress has done there job perfectly.This sort of movie requires very little description here. It's about a couple and their friends that have an addiction to heroin. The dialogue that is given to describe such acts is almost pitch perfect for what it should be. Watching the quick view at the top and the slow but steady drop in despair is how these movies usually go. So sometimes it's no surprise what happens but in the way in happens is the real achievement in this film. When a film shows such depravity sometimes it disturbs me and it is no different here. However the difference here is that I actually had empathy for the character's on the screen.

Having seen Armfield's work in the theatre, Rush's on both stage and screen, and Cornish's in "Somersault", I came to Candy expecting big things. However, I found that the film took Australian cinema nowhere new. Once again we have the intrusive, over-used score, patronising the audience by telling us what to feel. Once again the long slow moments of blank faces. Our directors are never shy with clichés: we knew it was coming scene after scene. We could predict Cornish's hand to the mirror, the misunderstood angst of youth running from the clutches of a vulgar capitalist middle class. Here we go with the older generation, insensitive to the complexities of the artist and the poet, with outlandish expectations of stability and responsibilities.Cornish is very comfortable in the role of the angst-ridden alienated youth, where the camera loves her, and the long silences and often strident soundtrack make less demands of an actor than a script with depth and power. Ledger was as convincing in the role of the poet (albeit drug addled) as my mailman. Where was the script that enabled either of the two leads to convince us that they were driven by any kind of creative impulses. Artist? Poet? Were they even literate? The text of the voice overs was self conscious in a schoolboy poet way. But did Ledger's character read any books,ever? And as for Cornish as the tortured artist, come on! Her burst of creative literacy with the lipstick was one of the most unconvincing moments of the movie. Could this swearing monosyllabic drug addict really be hit so suddenly with the muse of poesy? Cornish is a talented young actress who demonstrated early, her willingness to work in the Australian film industry. She deserves more complex scripts, less clichéd roles and tighter directing.Did anyone else out there find Heath Ledger's voice-overs embarrassing and quaint? Did the director actually make him do that? I found Ledger's acting to be unsubtle and inconsistent. Someone should have noticed the shifts in accent and pitch, the over working of the facial expressions. Did I imagine it, or did someone choose to use Mozart's music in this film? Oh the mighty melodrama of it all. Isn't it time Australian film got past such self-conscious scripts. Time to move forward as film makers and learn a very powerful technique for making powerful films: subtlety and understatement. The best European directors discovered it decades ago!P.S. Did anyone do any research on sexual dysfunction and heroin addicts?

A griping and intense love story from director Neil Armfield. Candy(Abbie Cornish), a carefree art student, and hopelessly disconnected poet Dan(Heath Ledger)are hooked on each other...and both are hooked on heroin. This is a deep and darker love story than most. The real world actually takes back seat to their recreational drug use that has taken over their lives. Casper(Geoffrey Rush), an older friend and chemistry professor from the university is their main supplier. They feel they have found all they need in each other. Marriage and unsurmountable debt proves to be a burden about as big as their drug habit. A humiliated Candy starts prostituting and even hapless Dan considers becoming a gay whore. Self-destruction has its price and Candy pays first. But can life actually drag itself out of the cesspool? Cornish and Ledger seem to go unashamedly soul-deep in their roles. CANDY may not be for everyone; but misery loves company.