absolutum dominium

2 words: hard candy.

ben and i went to catch it on sat night - the 10.05pm show -; and it was m18 for a very good reason.

the synopsis of the movie is simply this: 32-year-old guy with (hinted at) paedophilic tendencies meets 14-year-old girl on internet chatroom; but instead of the usual older man rapes and murders poor young innocent girl; 'poor young innocent girl' turns the tables on older man and effectively tortures him in this psychological thriller.

the good thing about this, is tt there is no violence or gore. there is a scene where the girl performs a castration operation on the man, but you don't see the actual castration. and the dialogue is amazing. life! gave the movie a not-too-good review, saying things like there was too much talk and tt the movie hinted at but did not reveal anything concrete.

but then again i doubt the quality of the life! reviewer of this movie, as i felt tt he/she completely missed the whole point of it. the beauty of this movie - if you can call it tt - is in the dialogue; how it rivets and engages you and makes you wonder who is playing who; what is happening; who is the cat and who is the mouse. things are hinted at, but nothing is obviously revealed; you are left to speculate.

and tt is what makes this film so intelligent.

unfortunately, coz of all tt dialogue, you can't watch this if you want a no-brainer film because as with all intelligent movies, this film really drains the mind.

but it is worth it; if you root for the girl, if you want to see the tables turned on the evil paedophile, and especially if you might have paedophilic tendencies yourself.

this movie will probably educate you properly on the dangers of being paedophilic - you never know who you might get. ;)

however, this movie is also seriously disturbing.

from the first frame where the girl starts her subtly-adult seduction of the older man, you just can't help wondering tt it is wrong wrong wrong. you just thank god when the acting stops and the torture begins. and no, there isn't really tt much torture; just a lot of mind games.

it's a bit disturbing, but all cool if you're a girl.

if you are a guy however...

prepare to be freaked out.

girls with irritating boyfriends or guyfriends who laugh at them when they cry at soppy movies or or when they scream at horror movies, you won't regret bringing them to watch 'hard candy'.

because you can literally watch you guy squirm in his seat, especially when the castration scene is about to and does come on.

amazing stuff.

this was the first movie where i saw my brave and unfazed game-for-anything boyfriend actually look everything from disturbed to nervous to freaked out. although he would try not to make it look obvious, with every scene he would go from his starting of an upright position, to slumping lower and lower and lower in his seat.

by the end of the movie, his head was halfway down his seat, in fact.

and the best thing, all the guys in the theatre had exactly the same reaction.

there were 4 guys sitting to my left; when the lights came on they were all similarly slumped in their seats. and when i turned to look back; the same thing for all the guys in the rows behind.

no snickering, no laughter, no smart talk.

i suppose because movies like this, and especially castration, really can hit a guy where it hurts the most.

wahahaha.