Candy
THINKFilm | Release Date: November 17, 2006 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
57
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 24 Critic Reviews
Positive:
10
Mixed:
14
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Neil Armfield's film hits hard because it sensitively shows how life on drugs can never be about anything else, and how the real horror of addiction is not what users do to themselves, but what they do to each other out of loneliness and despair. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Despite being well made and supremely acted, Candy is a true feel-bad experience. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
Told in a serenely observational fashion. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleRuthe Stein
For all its depiction of a descent into drug addiction, Candy is filled with surprisingly sweet moments and goes down more easily than seems possible given the subject matter. Read full review
70
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
With its intelligence, compassion, human terror and sheer loveliness, Candy is a winner despite the well-worn path it treads. Read full review
70
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
Doesn’t add anything substantively new, though it has been nicely directed by Neil Armfield, known in his country for his theater work, and features striking performances from Heath Ledger and Geoffrey Rush. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesCarina Chocano
For a druggie movie, Candy is surprisingly dynamic and involving. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubNoel Murray
Though it's a well-worn story, Candy does touch on a universal anxiety. For two people basking in the heat of an all-consuming love, what happens when the power gets cut off? Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
Because although there are some very striking moments in Neil Armfield's debut, there are simply not enough to keep us absorbed the way a movie should. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
The way director and co-adapter Armfield shoots it, the film's awfully pretty in its grimness, in the way "Leaving Las Vegas" managed to make train-wreck alcoholism more fake-lyrical than grungy. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterRichard James Havis
As the characters' lives fall apart, Ledger fails to bring the necessary gravitas to the role, and he looks a bit too healthy throughout. Read full review
60
VarietyRussell Edwards
Life, love and addiction make a mostly bitter, but occasionally sweet, concoction in Oz drama Candy, which is sometimes hard to swallow. Read full review
60
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Cornish provides a counterbalance for Ledger's authoritative presence, turning what could have been just another heroin movie into a flawed but engrossing parable on love and sacrifice. Read full review
58
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
Ledger mumbles his entire performance (some of it barely legible) as a fuzzy, friendly, happily passive heroin addict and sometime poet, as if he's too blissed out to even open his mouth as he simply drifts along with his addiction. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderMeredith Brody
A story that's reminiscent of the seminal "Panic in Needle Park." Read full review
50
Village VoiceRob Nelson
Any drug movie's effectiveness can be measured by the strength of its detox, and Candy doesn't sweeten the cold turkey. Still, it's a downward spiral from there in more ways than one. Never mind the neo-psychedelic-pop soundtrack and occasional double-vision cinematography: Dope just can't account for the film's fried brain cells. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
A wildly romanticized Australian druggie drama. Read full review
50
New York PostKyle Smith
As the movie's feet get stuck in its own misery, it made me appreciate "Trainspotting" all over again - its wit, how it moved, the way any outcome for its characters seemed possible. Read full review
50
PremiereScott Warren
Ledger turns in another stellar performance and Cornish is heartbreakingly good also in this well-crafted film. But once that first plunger is pushed, the surprises are few. Read full review
50
SlateDana Stevens
Geoffrey Rush is fine as a gay drug dealer who serves as an enabling Santa Claus to the doomed couple. But in the end, Candy is a little too sweet and not quite harmful enough to the audience's health. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
There has to be a good reason to put yourself through yet another junkie odyssey and Candy flunks the test. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
What we see, though, is the same old same old - beautiful faces turning gaunt and haunted, strung-out hero and heroine, stupid parents, de-tox worse than tox, descent to and return from the depths. Candy could be seen, I suppose, as a cautionary tale; take this as a cautionary review.
50
Portland OregonianMarc Mohan
Decent performances aside, the only interesting bits involve Geoffrey Rush as a chemistry professor who enables their self-abuse. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
It's neither utterly real nor utterly romantic (heroin, like alcohol, manages to be awfully and unremittingly both). Read full review
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