Movie Review: Somersault

By Maura Reilly Apr 20, 2006, 7:54 GMT

A visually haunting film set at the foot of the Australian ski fields, "Somersault", is the story of a young girl\'s sensory journey through which she learns the true meaning of love, family and friendship. Living with her mother, sixteen year old Heidi (heart-wrenchingly played by Abbie Cornish in a breakthrough role) looks to short-lived sexual encounters for the physical and emotional contact she craves. Fleeing Canberra for Jindabyne, she ...more

‘Somersault’ is the debut feature film from writer/director Cate Shortland.

It follows a young woman’s sexual awakening in a small Australian ski town. After making the rounds in several prestigious film festivals and sweeping the Australian Film Institute Awards in 2004 the movie is finally getting a limited theatrical run in New York and in Los Angeles.
 
In the vein of ‘Blue Car’ and ‘Thirteen’, ‘Somersault’ is the story of Heidi a 16 year old girl who’s left her home after making a foolish pass at her mother’s boyfriend.  She travels to the town of Jindabyne looking for an old acquaintance and finds nothing.

Left to her own devices Heidi unsuccessfully looks for work and a place to stay and has no luck until she meets Joe, son of a wealthy local rancher.  Hotel owner Irene takes pity on Heidi and rents her the hotel’s one and only flat, once occupied by Irene’s troubled son.

After getting a job at the “gas and sip” in town Heidi starts on the road to a fresh start. Sadly her past actions begin to catch up with her and send her into a tail spin of self-destructive behavior. In the end, Heidi must come to terms with what she’s done, how she’s affected the people she’s interacted with, and go back to the beginning. 

Heidi, played to confused perfection by Abbie Cornish (a dead ringer for Scarlett Johansson), is a child in a woman’s body. She’s testing her boundaries with what seems like little thought to the consequences.

She tries to manipulate men through sex and finds that more trouble than it’s worth. On more than one occasion that behavior comes back to hurt her as well.

Diametrically opposed to the sexual prowess is how much Heidi still behaves like a child. She throws a temper tantrum in a restaurant when Joe won’t answer her question by eating a whole bowl of chilies. In a tender scene, after they’ve been intimate Heidi is doing “hand magic” games on Joe, a stark contrast of child and adult behavior. She has this habit of smoothing down her hair just before she does something she thinks is important.

It’s how she steadies herself for the task ahead, tame the hair, and tame the chaos underneath.
 
Joe is played handily by Sam Worthington. Sam has that “guy-next-door” appeal that is at once familiar. What makes his performance so compelling is what you pick up interpretively. You can see his frustration towards his situation just simmering below the surface.

He is drawn to Heidi and at once resents what she represents: settling down in a town he’s desperate to leave.

And just as Heidi is struggling to establish who she is, Joe too is unsure of his own place in the world. He rebels against his father’s expectations, he alienates himself from his best friend, and in a move that mirrors Heidi, makes an unwise advance at a family friend.

There is a powerful scene when Joe has come home early in the morning, still reeling from the alcohol from the night before, literally crying out to his father, who can’t be bothered to look up from his paper and coffee. Its Joe’s relationship with Heidi that brings to light his own demons and he tries to help her with her’s. At their parting though they both agree that it was good that they had met.

Understated performances from Lynette Curran as Irene and Erik Thomson as Richard act as signposts for our two travelers. Irene is the sympathetic mother-figure that teaches Heidi about forgiveness. Richard represents someone who escaped the small town trap on their own terms. That is at once inspiring and foreign on many levels to Joe.

The young actress Hollie Andrew is also notable as Bianca, Heidi’s co-worker and reluctant friend.

The use of handheld cameras and available light gives this film an intimate quality. With the addition of the employment of an actual choreographer, Director of Photography Robert Humphreys creates scenes with a sometimes fierce energy and rhythm. The stark, colorless mountain winter (a side of Australia seldom seen by film audiences) is the ideal backdrop for a story about new beginnings. 

Somersault is a thoughtful film with some solid performances from its young stars. The story itself doesn’t break any new ground cinematically but has a few twists to keep it from being clichéd.

It opens in limited release in New York and Los Angeles April 21st and wider in the coming weeks.