Candy

Last night I decided to see the new Australian film `Candy' starring Heath Ledger and Abby Cornish. I'd heard mainly good reviews so had reasonable expectations.

First off, Heath Ledger (as Dan) is again fantastic backing up his best-ever performance in Brokeback Mountain but Abby Cornish (as Candy) is clearly the star of this film about addiction, mainly to drugs but I think also to each other. She's just amazing in every scene.

The support cast is solid, with Geoffrey Rush, Tony Martin and Noni Hazelhurst - but that's all they are, support cast.

I liked this film but wasn't blown away by it. Some scenes were outstanding, gripping and emotional but other times I found it hard to care for the characters. It's a bit like Little Fish (the Cate Blanchett film of last year) but I rated Little Fish as a much better film all round.

Interestingly, there was a sort of cameo from Brian Houston, of Hillsong fame, as a segment of Hillsong TV was shown in one scene while Dan and Candy were flicking through TV channels.

Should you see this film? It's worth seeing, it's a good film but didn't reach great status. A 7.5 out of 10 from me. I have to give ex-CITM member Andrew Lampe a plug here, he worked on the film as a `production runner' (according to the credits), so well done Lampe!