Somersault

Reviewer: Erin Donovan
Rating (out of 5): ****

In Somersault, first-time director Cate Shortland carves out a quietly insightful film about the messiness of adolescent sexuality, growing up poor and generational warfare with a sparing touch that keeps characters from suffocating under the weight of some of the more melodramatic moments. The performance of twenty-four year old Abbie Cornish cannot go without mention. In Heidi she embodies the guile and wonder of youth without veering into narcissistic petulism as wayward teenagers tend to be presented. Already this year Cornish has films coming out with Russell Crowe, Heath Ledger, Cate Blanchett and Kimberly Peirce (writer/director of Boys Don't Cry).

The film begins after an explosive argument between teenage Heidi (Cornish) and her mother, with Heidi running away to Jindabyne, a bucolic, Australian mountain-resort town. She takes a job at a gas station and begins experimenting with alcohol and sex, reveling in her newfound freedom and the town's beautiful winter elegance while the locals drink, drug and screw away their suffocating boredom. Heidi enters into a haphazard relationship with Joe, the son of a local farmer who has become a playboy of the tourist set. Joe feels quite torn between his fascination with the energetic Heidi and his friends who mock him for spending so much time with someone of such low class (no issue is raised with her age). He copes with this confusion by distancing himself from all of them, which pushes Heidi down a self-destructive spiral.

Somersault swept the Australian Film Institute's awards (winning 13 major awards, the most ever given to a single film) and was enormously popular on the European film festival circuit. Beautifully scored by Aussie synth band Decoder Ring. DVD extras include the usual making-of featurette, deleted scenes with director commentary and a lengthy interview with extraordinary cinematographer Robert Humphereys.

See also: Thirteen, Repulsion, Me Without You, Morvern Callar, Rain, Under the Sand.