Who Doesn't Like Candy?

I may be looking back through rose-tinted glasses or whatever, but… I can’t help but think of Candy (2006) as the perfect film to view, especially after reading the chapters in our textbook about vulnerable bodies and unhappy endings. It’s been approximately a year since I’ve seen the film, and I’ve only seen it once, so I’m relying partly on IMDb and Wikipedia to jog my memory for this blog post. The film features Heath Ledger -- putting forth one of his best performances, in my opinion -- and Abbie Cornish as lovers, Dan and Candy (respectively), with addictions for heroin and each other. I don’t want to spoil the film for anyone, but it chronicles the downward spiral of Dan and Candy as a drug-addled and hopeless couple. Dan and Candy both embody the notion of vulnerable bodies because their addictions render them socially and emotionally impaired.

After reading the chapter about unhappy endings, Candy sounds very similar to Monkey Grip. In fact, Beth and JP from The Last Days of Chez Nous remind me a bit of Candy’s parents. I think it would be interesting to watch/re-watch Monkey Grip, The Last Days of Chez Nous, and Candy in order to look for similarities and influences and so forth.

IMDb and Wikipedia claim that Dan is a poet and Candy is an art student, but I cannot recall any instances of creative expression from the film. However, I maintain that Dan and Candy embody the notion of vulnerable bodies. Furthermore, I think that their lack of creative expression could possibly be linked to their downfall and unhappy ending.

From what I recall, Candy lacks a strong example of same-sex mateship. Geoffrey Rush plays Casper, Dan’s good friend. Despite being good friends, I don’t believe that Casper and Dan are mates. I think that Dan’s lack of mateship throughout the film contributes to his miserable experience. I don’t know where else I was going with this, but I think that Candy deserves consideration as a solid film about the consequences of lacking creative expression and a healthy mateship. However, be forewarned that it is not upbeat… but that’s okay if you’re aiming for an unhappy ending for vulnerable bodies.

I may watch Candy again before the end of the semester. If I do, I’ll be sure to post a more detailed entry about how the film addresses unhappy endings, vulnerable bodies, and mateship and so on and so forth.

Here’s a link to two interesting articles about/interviews with Heath Ledger about his role in Candy and other various productions. He certainly has (or at least had) a disposition to play characters with vulnerable bodies, even in his American body of work: Dan, The Joker, a Brokeback Mountaineer, Sir William Thatcher from A Knight’s Tale, and, of course, Patrick from 10 Things I Hate About You.

Articles linked here
and here

(Again, I'm sorry for not being technologically savvy enough to embed these. Ed's note: just replace second html tag with text you want to embed.)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0345423879/ref=sib_dp_pop_fc/181-6336598-8606569?ie=UTF8&p=S001#

Through the link above, I think you should be able to actually access and read the novel, written by Luke Davies, that the film was based on and took its name from. Personally, I have not read the novel and cannot comment on whether the movie stays true to form in terms of source material or not.