Candy (DVD)

Candy

Candy (Abbie Cornish) is a beautiful young lady with a lot of potential who falls in love with a charming, young, aspiring poet (Heath Ledger) and his beatnik lifestyle- which includes drugs. Before too long, both of them are wrapped up in the druggie lifestyle. What starts off as harmless fun and pleasure ends up as pain and misery. Heath Ledger is the poet, Dan is a pretty good con man and works a nice credit card scheme that keeps the cash coming in at a steady rate- for awhile. Then, of course, their luck runs out and it comes down to lying, stealing and manipulating Candy's family for money. Soon, as Dan and Candy sink further and further into a horrific heroin addiction; it comes down to prostitution, degradation and then withdrawal. This is ultimately a very sad story with a bittersweet ending. Dan's devotion to Candy is shown when the two suffer through horrible heroin withdrawal only to decide that they cannot quit the drug cold turkey and turn to methadone. Dan moves them to the country and takes on some menial labor jobs for money to put food on the table. Candy doesn't work and soon becomes more and more depressed and lonely; hanging out and smoking pot with a neighbor. Her behavior becomes more and more erratic and before long she flees the country. It's a heartbreaking scene, when Dan comes home from a hard day of work to find the place trashed and Candy gone, words written in lipstick on the walls. He falls apart. He's despondent and turns back to drugs. He goes to see his mentor and father figure, Casper (Geoffrey Rush), who has developed a drug more potent and cheaper than heroin; but when he arrives there he finds his friend has overdosed. This is a powerful moment in the film and this is where Ledger is at his best, quietly conveying his complete emotional devastation. He's lost the girl he loves and his best friend. He's hit rock bottom. He gets a dishwashing job and manages to stay clean; still thinking about Candy and still writing his poetry on breaks. Eventually the day comes when a cleaned up Candy comes to see him. He does the hardest thing in the world- he lets her go.