Candy

The junkie. A person who is hooked on drugs. Attached to? Obsessed with? In love? The relationship between a junkie and their drug of choice can best be described as a love and hate. They love their drug for what it does for them but hate it for what it takes from them. Its an extremely dependent relationship.
Candy is an Australian film about a couple who are as equally dependent on each other as they are on their favorite drug: heroin. The couple are Dan, played by Heath Ledger, and Candy, played by Abbie Cornish. They have different dependencies on the relationship. Candy loves Dan. She loves what he is and how he is. Dan loves Candy for loving Dan. He loves how she makes him feel. This slight difference is the basis for the three stages, or chapters, of their relationship: heaven, earth, and hell. This is a very most personal drug film. Director Neil Armfield takes the camera and places in the nucleus of their relationship. It creates a unique perspective on their lives. Unlike a film like Trainspotting which, while not a positive spin on drug usage, it does not romanticize it. Dan and Candy resort to begging, petty crime, and pawn their bodies to get their fixes. Uniquely, its their fix that holds them together. The acts they take are the glue. It binds them to each other and conversely deteriorates them. Holding the film together is the honest performances by Legder and Cornish. While he was awarded posthumously for his role as the Joker, his turn as Dan is a much more potent performances. Not to be outdone, Cornish delivers a beautiful turn. She makes Candy a tragic figure, the kind of woman who is worth fighting for but is lost by way of her love for Dan.
Drugs are no laughing matter. Some people use them recreationally and never suffer the consequences. Others do it once and have signed their death warrant. Candy looks at the beauty of love in the face of the tragedy that is a junkie's life. The performances are top-notch and rememberable. Even career-defining. One day the public will see it, too. When that day comes, they will be hooked.