Plot
A poet named Dan (Heath Ledger) falls in love with an art student named Candy (Abbie Cornish) who gravitates to his bohemian lifestyle – and his love of heroin. Hooked as much on one another as they are on the drug, their relationship alternates between states of oblivion, self-destruction, and despair.
The film is organized in three acts of roughly 3 scenes each, titled Heaven, Earth, and Hell:
In Heaven, sex and drugs are experienced ecstatically by the young lovers. They continuously seek money to buy drugs, borrowing from Candy's parents or Casper (Geoffrey Rush), an eccentric university professor, selling things, stealing, and even prostituting when desperate.
In Earth they are married and confront the realities of addiction and family life. For money, Candy becomes a prostitute; Dan purchases the drugs. Dan steals a credit card, gets the owner's PIN, and steals money out of the owner's bank funds. Candy mistakenly becomes pregnant, and despite their efforts to "go clean" the baby is delivered still born around 23 weeks into the pregnancy. They finally stop taking drugs with huge effort, going through agonizing withdrawal symptoms in the process. Despite poor living conditions, constant struggles for money, and frequent disputes, they love each other very much.
In Hell they experience the dissolution of their relationship and recovery. Dan and Candy choose to move out into the country to "try methadone" as a way to ease into a more normal life. After a disastrous Sunday lunch, Candy fights with her parents, breaks down and screams at them to leave. Eventually, she becomes involved with one of their neighbors, who is also a drug user, and relapses to her previous lifestyle. Candy has a complete mental breakdown, and becomes extremely distant toward Dan. He returns to Casper only to find he has died of a drug overdose, forcing Dan to reconsider his life. While Candy recovers in a clinic, Dan gets clean and holds down a job as a dishwasher. When Candy returns to Dan he recognises that their relationship is based on heroin, and the two can no longer communicate. As such, even though he is still in love with Candy, he decides to end the relationship for good rather than risk dragging her back into addiction.
Read more about this topic: Candy (2006 Film)
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