Plot:

For three weeks, 14-year-old Hayley Stark has been chatting on-line with 'Lensmaster319', a 32-year old fashion photographer, named Jeff. The two agree to meet at a coffee shop called Nighthawks. They hit it off, despite the massive age difference. Hayley appears to flirt with Jeff, and Jeff generally restrains himself, even admitting that he must wait 4-years until he can be with her. But his reservations are apparently not enough to decline when Hayley all but invites herself over to his house. Once at the house, manipulation becomes the name of the game, and the pedophile seems to be on the non-traditional side of it.

Backgroundinformation:

The production by Lions Gate Films got already great attention at the Sundance Film Festival 2005 and the spanish Sitges Festival 2005 and was very successful there. The reviews and comments about Hard Candy are surprisingly good, but not only due to the complex plot but rather due to the record-breaking acting performance of Ellen Page.
The movie was shown in a few selected cinemas in the USA and realize a grandiose box-office takings of 30.000 US-Dollar in only two cinemas. Hard Candy, which was shooted in only 18 days, find its way to the german cinemas in June 2006, too.

After he has seen Hard Candy, X-Men 3 Director Brett Rattner said about Ellen Page:

"She's the most chameleon-like actress I've ever met. She's a shy person, until she wants to become something else."

Source: usatoday.com

Ellen Page said about her character Hayley Stark:

“I wouldn’t say she’s evil or sick at all. I think she’s an extremely passionate, intelligent young woman. I actually found it kind of inspiring in a way, and in a symbolic sense perhaps. But no, I wouldn’t think she’s crazy or evil. I think she sees something wrong with society. She’s irritated that people are ignoring it and she’s going to do something about it.”

Source: movies.about.com

Facts:

• The title comes from Internet slang for an under-aged girl
• The inspiration comes from Japan. Producer David Higgins had read reports of Japanese schoolgirls ambushing men who surfed the Internet for underage dates and later developed the story
• Ellen Page was nearly passed over for the role of Hayley because she had a shaved head for another role when she filmed the audition tape she submitted
• Ellen won the casting against 300 other girls
• Most of the scenes were only filmed for one or two times
• Filmed in 18 days
• The movie wasn't filmed chronologically
• Sandra Oh agreed to her small part in this film mainly because of her previous working relationship with Ellen
• Sandra Oh's material was all shot in one day
• Patrick Wilson briefly passed out due to overexertion during filming of the intense surgery scene
• The final shot of Hayley with the hoody pulled over her head was taken by the DP Jo Willems without Ellen Page knowing. She didn't know about the shot until she saw the final cut
• Despite the intense emotional and physical content of most rest of the movie, Ellen Page said that one of the hardest scenes to shoot by far was the scene at Nighthawks, where for take after take she had to eat more tiramisu than she could ever want
• During its opening weekend, the film grossed nearly $30,000 per theater, the highest per-screen average in the top 50

Awards:

• Best Screenplay (Brian Nelson, 2005 Catalonian International Film Festival)
• Best Film (David Slade, 2005 Catalonian International Film Festival)
• Best Feature Film (Audience Award, 2005 Catalonian International Film Festival)
• Overlooked Film of the Year (PFCS Award, 2006 Phoenix Film Critics Circle)
• Best Actress (Ellen Page, 2006 Austin Film Critics Awards)
• Best Equality of the Sexes (Ellen Page, 2006 Women Film Critics Circle)