''Candy'' is a 2006 Australian

romantic Romantic may refer to: Genres and eras * The Romantic era, an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement of the 18th and 19th centuries ** Romantic music, of that era ** Romantic poetry, of that era ** Romanticism in science, of that e ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

, adapted from Luke Davies's 1998 novel '' Candy: A Novel of Love and Addiction''. ''Candy'' was directed by debut filmmaker

Neil Armfield Neil Geoffrey Armfield (born 22 April 1955) is an Australian director of theatre, film and opera. Biography Born in Sydney, Armfield is the third and youngest son of Len, a factory worker at the nearby Arnott's Biscuits factory and Nita Armfie ...

and stars

Heath Ledger Heath Andrew Ledger (4 April 1979 – 22 January 2008) was an Australian actor and music video director. After playing roles in several Australian television and film productions during the 1990s, Ledger moved to the United States in 1998 to ...

Abbie Cornish Abbie Cornish (born 7 August 1982) is an Australian actress. Cornish is best known for her film roles as Heidi in '' Somersault'' (2004), Fanny Brawne in '' Bright Star'' (2009), Sweet Pea in '' Sucker Punch'' (2011), Lindy in '' Limitless'' ( ...

and

Geoffrey Rush Geoffrey Roy Rush (born 6 July 1951) is an Australian actor. He is known for his eccentric leading man roles on stage and screen. He is among 24 people who have won the Triple Crown of Acting, having received an Academy Award, a Primetime Em ...

. ''Candy'', produced by Margaret Fink, was released in Australia on 25 May 2006 and subsequently released worldwide.

Plot

There are three acts of roughly three scenes each,

Heaven Heaven or the heavens, is a common religious cosmological or transcendent supernatural place where beings such as deities, angels, souls, saints, or venerated ancestors are said to originate, be enthroned, or reside. According to the bel ...

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surf ...

, and Hell.

Heaven

A poet named Dan and an art student named Candy fall passionately in love, as Candy gravitates to her bohemian lifestyle and love of heroin. Frequently seeking drug money, they borrow from Candy's parents or eccentric university professor Casper, then turn to theft. When Candy sells her grandmother's ring, she has sex with a pawn shop owner for $50.

Earth

Dan and Candy marry and confront the realities of addiction and family life. Dan purchases the drugs while Candy prostitutes. While considering having sex with men in a park bathroom for money, Dan steals a credit card and scams the owner for his

PIN A pin is a device used for fastening objects or material together. Pin or PIN may also refer to: Computers and technology * Personal identification number (PIN), to access a secured system ** PIN pad, a PIN entry device * PIN, a former Dutch ...

, taking $7000. Candy becomes pregnant, and despite a few days of tortuously " going clean", their baby is delivered stillborn at 23 weeks. They return to heroin, but stop again, enduring agonizing

withdrawal Withdrawal means "an act of taking out" and may refer to: * Anchoresis (withdrawal from the world for religious or ethical reasons) * '' Coitus interruptus'' (the withdrawal method) * Drug withdrawal * Social withdrawal * Taking of money from ...

symptoms in the process. Despite poor living conditions, constant struggles for money, and frequent disputes, the pair remain in love.

Hell

Dan and Candy move to the country to "try

methadone Methadone, sold under the brand names Dolophine and Methadose among others, is a synthetic opioid agonist used for chronic pain and also for opioid dependence. It is used to treat chronic pain, and it is also used to treat addiction to hero ...

" as a way to ease into a more normal life and eventually quit drugs altogether. After a disastrous attempt to have Candy's parents over for Sunday lunch, Candy screams at her mother about how she is the cause for Candy to "never have been able to unclench erfists". After Dan returns home one day from working as a bricklayer, he finds Candy smoking marijuana with a new man and watches as she later leaves to have sex with him. When she returns, she screams at Dan about how much she hates him and wants him to leave. He returns later to find the walls of every room of the house are covered with poems about Dan and Candy that she has written in smeared makeup. Distressed, Dan seeks Casper again and takes heroin with him. Dan is informed the next morning of Candy's hospitalization back in Sydney, where he finds her in the aftermath of a nervous breakdown. Dan returns to Casper's only to find him dead of a heroin overdose. This forces Dan to reconsider his life. While Candy recovers in a treatment clinic, Dan gets clean and finds a job washing dishes at a restaurant while still missing Candy. But when Candy finishes treatment and comes to the restaurant to finish off where they started, he cries and says "There's no going back. If you're given a reprieve, I think it's good to remember just how thin it is." She subsequently leaves.

Cast

as Candy *

as Dan *

as Casper *

Tom Budge Thomas Budge (born 15 March 1982) is an Australian actor. Budge was born in Melbourne, Victoria. Early in his acting career, Budge appeared in a number of Australian television shows, including '' Neighbours'', ''Round the Twist'', and ''Shock ...

as Schumann *Roberto Meza Mont as Jorge * Tony Martin as Jim Wyatt *

Noni Hazlehurst Leonie Elva "Noni" Hazlehurst , (born 17 August 1953) is an Australian actress, director, writer, presenter and broadcaster who has appeared on television and radio, in dramas, mini-series and made for television films, as well also o ...

as Elaine Wyatt * Tim McKenzie as Uncle Rod * Tara Morice as Aunt Katherine *Maddi Newling as Janey *

Cristian Castillo Christian Giovanni Castillo Martínez (born August 25, 1984 in San Salvador) is a Salvadoran footballer. He was banned for life in 2013, for match-fixing while playing for the El Salvador national football team. After being banned, he played fo ...

as Little Angelo * Paul Blackwell as Phillip Dudley *

Adrienne Pickering Adrienne Pickering (born 22 February 1981) is an Australian actress. Early life and education Born in rural Queensland, Pickering was educated at the University of Queensland, where she majored in psychology and drama. She later undertook her ...

as bank teller * Nathaniel Dean as Paul Hillman *Alicia Hannah as neighbour * Luke Davies as a milkman

Soundtrack

The film features a version of the

Tim Buckley Timothy Charles Buckley III (February 14, 1947 – June 29, 1975) was an American musician. His music and style changed considerably through the years. Buckley began his career based in folk music, but his subsequent albums experimented with ja ...

song " Song to the Siren", sung by actress/singer Paula Arundell. It also includes the track ''Sugar Man'' from the debut 1970 album by Detroit singer-songwriter

Sixto Rodriguez Sixto Diaz Rodriguez (born July 10, 1942), known professionally as Rodriguez, is an American singer-songwriter from Detroit, Michigan. Though his career was initially met with little fanfare in the United States, he found success in South Afric ...

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 47% with an average rating of 5.76/10, based on 76 reviews. The site's critics consensus reads: "Stars Heath Ledger and Abbie Cornish look better than they should as heroin addicts, and their characters are too absorbed and self-pitying to be totally compelling." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 57 out of 100, based on 24 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Festivals

*2006 – Germany –

Berlin International Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (german: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin), usually called the Berlinale (), is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festi ...

*2006 –

Hong Kong International Film Festival The Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF), is one of Asia’s oldest international film festivals. Founded in 1976, the festival features different movies, filmmakers from different countries in Hong Kong. HKIFF screens around 230 films ...

*2006 – Canada –

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a perman ...

*2006 – UK –

BFI London Film Festival The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival founded in 1957 and held in the United Kingdom, running for two weeks in October with co-operation from the British Film Institute. It screens more than 300 films, documentaries and shor ...

*2006 – USA – Milwaukee International Film Festival *2007 – Singapore –

Singapore International Film Festival The Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF) ( Chinese: 新加坡国际电影节) is the longest-running film festival in Singapore. Founded in 1987, the festival has a focus on showcasing international films and providing a global platform fo ...

Awards

Won: *2006 Australian Writers Guild Awards: Feature Film – Adaptation (Luke Davies with Neil Armfield). *2006 Film Critics Circle of Australia: Best Actress in a Lead Role (

), Best Actor in a Supporting Role (

). *2006

Australian Screen Editors Australian Screen Editors (ASE) was founded in 1996 by Henry Dangar (who became its first president) and Jenny Ward. The guild is "dedicated to the pursuit and recognition of excellence in the arts, sciences and technology of motion picture and t ...

Ellie for Best Editing in a Feature Film

Dany Cooper Dany Cooper is an Australian film editor, best known for her work on ''Candy Candy, also called sweets (British English) or lollies (Australian English Australian English (AusE, AusEng, AuE, AuEng, en-AU) is the set of varieties o ...

ASE Nominated: *2006

: Golden Berlin Bear. *2006 Film Critics Circle of Australia: Best Actor in a Leading Role (

), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (

), Best Film, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Music Score ( Paul Charlier). *2006

Australian Film Institute Awards The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards, known as the AACTA Awards, are presented annually by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA). The awards recognise excellence in the film and television indust ...

: Best Film, Best Actress in a Leading Role (

), Best Actor in a Leading Role (

), Best Actor in a Supporting Role (

), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (

), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Production Design. *2006 Inside Film Awards: Best Actor (

), Best Actress (

References

External links

''Candy'' official website
* *
''Candy'' at the National Film and Sound Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Candy (2006 Film) 2006 films Australian romantic drama films Australian pregnancy films Films about heroin addiction Films based on Australian novels Films shot in Australia Films set in Sydney 2006 romantic drama films 2000s English-language films