Somersault

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Living Down Under, Heidi (Abbie Cornish) might be only 16, but she has the body of an older woman. Lonely and struggling to deal with new feelings, she makes a pass at her mother's tattooed boyfriend. He of course reciprocates, but they are caught by her mother (Olivia Pigeot)), who totally freaks. Rejected by her mother, a shattered Heidi runs away from home. Because she is willing to trade her body for a place to stay and transportation, things are not looking promising for Heidi. Then she has a bit of lucky, because she crosses the path of Joe (Sam Worthington), the son of a farmer, who is drawn to the nymph but is not interested in taking advantage of her.

So when she gets in his pickup he takes her to this ski resort town, which is not in the off-season, and there she tries to make a life for herself. Joe puts her up for the night in a motel run by Irene (Lynette Curran), who is willing to let Heidi stay in the flat behind the place that her son used to stay in as long as she pays rent and does not cause trouble. Heidi scours the town for a job at gets one working behind the counter at the BP station. She is way too needy for Joe, who has his own problems, but he sees her from time to time until she asks him if he is her boyfriend. He does not respond well to pressure and perhaps he is put off by her trashy background. In fact, that seems to be what most of the people in this town think about her, which is brought home in a scene that is representative of the tenor of this film.

At several key moments in "Somersault," the film does exactly that. You think you know what is about to happen when Heidi is being given a ride and the guy suddenly turns off the road to show her something; but the expected does not happen. You think that Heidi is forming the nucleus of a new family, but that is not what is happening here either. What should have been a friendship with Bianca (Hollie Andrew) at the BP, is quickly denied her. Even when we get to the pivotal moment where a depressed and despondent Heidi decides to become the person that apparently everybody think she is, things do not pan out as we would think either. It is this ability to surprise me time and time again that fully justifies rounding up on this 2004 film.

This is a heartfelt and painful movie, because Heidi is living on the edge, and obviously mistaken sex for love. We have trouble thinking she is still a little girl, but we never believe she has become a woman. In her favor is the fact that she is trying to make an honest go of it out on her own. I was expecting her to start stealing things, but she does not, although she scavenges left over food at the motel. In fact, one of the signature aspects of her character is that she eats whatever she can at every opportunity. Heidi is so emotionally numb that that what stands out are the two moments where she loses it. The first comes when she learns of a cruel lie that adds insult to injury and forces a primal scream of rage out of her. The other is when she finally breaks and confesses to another person as to what has happened to her, and in that honest moment finds the lifeline she so desperately needs.

"Somersault" is the first feature film by writer-director Cate Shortland, who had previously made a trio of short films. There are some artistic flourishes throughout the film and a strategic reduction in the color palate, but primarily Shortland has her cinematographer Robert Humphreys go with a hand held camera to create a sense of intimacy with the characters. The results are quite successful. "Somersault" won 13 Australian Film Institute awards out of 15 nominations (the previous record for wins was 8), with the two it did not win being because it had multiple nominees in the supporting actor and actress categories. Obviously there is a lot of pressure on Shortland for her new film, which I should think they are eagerly anticipating in Australia, but she appears to be biding her time. That reminds me: whatever happened to James Cameron?

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