Candy - Heath Ledger, Geoffery Rush, Abbie Cornish.
Director - Neil Armfield

The amount of ‘indie’ (and I use that term loosely) films about drug abuse is ever escalating, and while some are fabulously brutal, others seem to skirt around the subject. This film falls somewhere in the middle. Based on the novel with a much longer name by Luke Davies, this is the directorial debut from Neil Armfield, and it’s not half bad.

Narrated by Ledger’s character, Dan, this story is essentially very basic. Two young lovers find themselves spiralling into self-destruction thanks to their heroin addiction.

The young artist Candy (Abbie Cornish) resorts to selling her body. The couple fall pregnant and try to quit their habit, resulting in a miscarriage. The fall-out from this being Candy’s mental disintegration, and Dan’s clean-up act. Eventually, after Candy is admitted to an institution, the two manage to clean their lives up, but have they changed so much that they can no longer be together?

If you want to watch a film about the nitty-gritty of heroin addiction, this film is probably not for you. This film is much more about the two people the drug is affecting than the actual heroin itself. There are no crazy trips or shots of needles going into the skin. It’s a film that’s superbly realised, without a doubt. The scene with the stillbirth is quite possibly one of the most horrific things I’ve seen on film in terms of human emotion, and the scene where Dan cons and tricks his way into $7,000 is supremely acted. Cornish is an accomplished actress, but able to portray a painfully raw side of Candy, and her scenes during the melt-down are subtle but deeply disturbing, which is a difficult balance in this type of film.

The indie aspect of this film does it good, gives it an almost voyeuristic quality, without the queasy handheld effect. A brilliant sequence that plays the opening credits is a work of genius, one of the best openers I’ve seen in a while, again - very simple and personal.

In all, I enjoyed this film - bought shamefully in the wake of Heath Ledgers death. Not necessarily the best film on the subject of drug abuse, or with the fastest most exciting plot, but the lead performances are staggering, and if you’re interested in seeing the human, relative side of drug abuse as opposed to technicolour trips and gruesome withdrawl scenes, this is for you. Moving and sweet, it makes the point without preaching and creates a connection to the characters that is so often lacking in these sorts of films.