Candy (ATOM Study Guide)

Candy is the 2006 feature film version of the 1997 novel of the same name by Australian writer Luke Davies. It will appeal to senior secondary and tertiary students. It is directed by Neil Armfield and traces the relationship between Candy, a beautiful and talented young painter, and Dan, a sometime poet. Dan is a heroin user, and Candy soon wants to be involved in that part of his life. Their intense love becomes increasingly associated with their need to feed their drug addiction. Their occasional efforts to break themselves of their addiction fail and this leads them into a spiral of crime, deceit, prostitution, isolation and desperation. Finally, Candy suffers a mental breakdown, and successfully dries out in a convalescent home. When she returns, Dan has to decide whether they will resume their love with its heroin component maintained, or whether he needs to leave her to give her a chance of being free.

Candy has been described as a love triangle – hero, heroine and heroin. Candy can be seen as an exploration of different kinds of love: between Dan and Candy, between Candy and her parents, between Dan and her parents and between Dan/Candy and heroin. The main focus of the story is between Dan and Candy. But Dan does many things that would seem to be 'anti-love' or that put his needs for heroin before his love for Candy – he introduces Candy to heroin, he allows Candy to prostitute herself, their addiction kills their child. We also see the love of the Wyatts for their daughter, Candy. They do not interfere in Candy's relationship with Dan, even when they realize that both are addicted to heroin. Some of the strongest moments of tension and comedy in the film come from the collision between the parents' world, and that of the two young people.

Geoffrey Rush's Casper is a kind of accidental mentor to Candy and Dan. As a much longer-term addict than Dan and Candy, Casper presents to them a living example of one particular path that you might possibly go down in your life.

The study guide provides extensive discussion starters and activities to help students analyze the characters, narrative, and novel to film, production and specific key scenes in the film. As well as the major themes of addiction, drug use and drug culture, the laws relating to drug use and freedom and responsibility, students are encouraged to debate current societal issues relating to the legalization of drugs and the treatment of drug addicts. The guide asks students to think critically about how the filmmaker avoids the issue, that by using glamorous and popular actors he might also be glamorizing the subject matter of the film. Starring Heath Ledger and Abbie Cornish, with Geoffrey Rush, the film could also be used as a study of Australian Film Culture.

Curriculum Links:
Candy is a moral tale about the destructiveness of heroin addiction which will be relevant to senior secondary and tertiary students of:
• Media Studies
• Film Studies
• English – Film as Text
• Health and Human Relations
• Values Education
• SOSE / HSIE
• Drug Education