Thanks! I tried out the File::Slurp just now, and it works perfectly!
Altogether its:
use File::Slurp;
my $fileholder = read_file( $file );
$c->res->content_type('application/pdf');
$c->res->header('Content-Disposition', "attachment; filename=$name");
$c->res->body( $fileholder );
Best,
Jillian