Every day, Watch This offers staff recommendations inspired by a new movie coming out that week. This week: Arriving in select theaters Friday, The End Of The Tour belongs to a fine tradition of movies that feature little more than two actors gabbing at each other. We’ve lined up five days of the same, recommending some fine two-person talkfests.
Hard Candy (2005)
About halfway through Hard Candy, David Slade’s two-hander of a psychological cat-and-mouse game, Patrick Wilson gives a long, anguished speech about a horrifying memory from his childhood. Pain clouding his eyes, he recounts the experience in slow, excruciating detail. Gradually, he trails off, the reminiscence briefly taking him out of the moment. It’s an ugly, sad story, the verbal equivalent of slowing down as you pass by a nasty car accident and survey the damage. There’s a momentary silence. And then Ellen Page threatens to cut off his balls.
There’s not much sense in trying to keep the first-act twist of Hard Candy a secret, because without it, there’s little impetus to see a film that would otherwise hinge on whether or not a pedophile successfully seduces a teenager. (Gross.) No, Hard Candy’s deliciously vengeful twist pivots on the idea of a seemingly naive young girl turning the tables on her predatory would-be abuser. After photographer Jeff Kohlver (Wilson) successfully arranges an IRL meeting to see Hayley Stark (Page), the barely adolescent girl with whom he’s been chatting online, the two end up back at his house. Hayley goes to pour them a couple of screwdrivers, and after several drinks, she demands that Jeff, a photographer, take her picture. But just as things start to get really uncomfortable, Jeff passes out on the floor. When he comes to, he’s tied up—and suffice it to say, Hayley is not the innocent naïf he thought.
It might be the first of its kind: a pedophile-revenge flick where it’s the young person taking the initiative, rather than some righteous stiff out of Law & Order: SVU casting. But while the story and themes place it alongside other revenge flicks like Ms. 45 or Death Wish, it’s the smart and elegant construction that elevate the movie above its pulpy subject matter. Slade, as he’s proven with episodes of Hannibal and Breaking Bad—and even The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, certainly the best installment of that misbegotten series—has a wonderful eye for scene construction. He takes what is essentially a nearly two-hour conversation and manages to sustain tension throughout. It’s an impressive high-wire act, and even as it gets messier toward the end, the sense of nervy uncertainty remains.