SOMERSAULT A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2006 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): **
SOMERSAULT, written and directed by Cate Shortland, was a big award winner in its native Australia, winning in every category in the Australian Film Institute awards in 2004, which has never happened before. I can't for the life of me understand why, unless the competition that year was extremely slim. This slice-of-very-slow-life tale concerns a sexually precocious sixteen-year-old girl with the old-fashioned name of Heidi. As played with sweet innocence by Abbie Cornish, Heidi is a girl with a bad reputation who keeps making it worse.
The inconsequential story moves with all of the sluggish energy of stop-and-go traffic during rush hour. The movie just keeps marking time until Heidi has another brief sexual encounter with some new guy.
The story starts with Heidi seducing her mother's boyfriend, just after she left for work. But no sooner does the boyfriend begin to touch Heidi than the mother walks in on them, having come back for something she forgot. This causes Heidi to immediately leave town out of embarrassment. Sad and lonely, as she is for the rest of the entire movie, Heidi goes to live in a ski resort town in what appears to be the off-season. While trying to find work at any retail shop that will hire her, her eyes suggests that her body might be available in return for employment.
An ex-brunette, Heidi is an attractive blonde with a sad little smile. Cornish doesn't demonstrate much range in her acting as Heidi, but she is infinitely better than the supporting cast, who all phone in their performances.
After inviting a couple of equally drunken strangers to her apartment one night for a sexual threesome and for some drugs, she finally begins to realize that her life is starting to hit bottom. Soon, thereafter, she will be reunited with her mother.
Other than the enjoyment of a few briefly erotic scenes, I can't fathom why anyone would care about this film. The characters are all one dimensional, and the pacing is way too slack. When it was over with, I just shrugged my shoulders and left.
SOMERSAULT runs 1:46. It is not rated but would be R for sex, nudity, language and drug usage and would be acceptable for older teenagers.
The film is playing in limited release now in the United States. In the Silicon Valley, it is showing at the Camera Cinemas.
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