Plot
New experiences help a young girl learn the differences between sex and love.
Release Year: 2004
Rating: 6.8/10 (4,014 voted)
Critic's Score: 73/100
Director:
Cate Shortland
Stars: Abbie Cornish, Sam Worthington, Lynette Curran
Storyline Coming of age: Heidi, 15, runs away from home after her mom sees her kissing mom's boyfriend. She goes to a Snowy River resort where a vague job offer doesn't pan out. She manages to find a place to live and a job at a convenience store. She's between childhood -- nursery rimes and a scrapbook of glittery unicorns - and adulthood - working, sorting out emotions and sexuality, and dealing with social slights and false charges of bad behavior. She's attractive and her loneliness makes her vulnerable. She sleeps with Joe, the son of local ranchers, and she awakens in him feelings he can't express. Is there any way she can put off adulthood and be a kid awhile longer?
Cast: Abbie Cornish
-
Heidi
Damian de Montemas
-
Adam
Olivia Pigeot
-
Nicole
Alex Babic
-
Brian the barman
Elizabeth Muntar
-
Ticket Vendor
Justin Martin
-
Guy
Ben Tate
-
Sean
Joshua Phillips
-
Josh
Sam Worthington
-
Joe
Nathaniel Dean
-
Stuart
Paul Gleeson
-
Roy
Bruce Ross
-
Staring Man
Lynette Curran
-
Irene
John Sheerin
-
Pat
Anne-Louise Lambert
-
Martha
(as Anne Louise Lambert)
Opening Weekend: AUD 70,769
(Australia)
(12 September 2004)
(21 Screens)
Gross: $92,214
(USA)
(29 June 2006)
Technical Specs
Runtime:|
Germany:
(TV version)
Did You Know?
Trivia:
Took 7 years to make.
Goofs:
Revealing mistakes:
When Joe pours hot water onto the icy windscreen of his car, no steam appears.
User Review
The pain of young love, complete with an anti-male feminist slant
Rating:
Those who haven't understood Somersault's main themes or appreciated it
as a perceptive piece of film-making may well be afflicted with the
same delusional shortcomings of its characters: an inability to connect
with others, or to have them connect with you. I've not seen a film
that condenses and represents the small-town Australian mindset so
well, presenting it through a minimalist script that relies on good
acting, and using a paradoxical setting (cold, bleak and snowy
Jindabyne rather than a stereotypical Australian locale). Sure there's
little in the way of plot because this is gritty realism, not fanciful
escapism; this is a film to get you thinking, not sitting boggle-eyed
at a pageant of movement and dialog.
The central theme of Somersault is young males, females and how they
dance around each other in the search for intimacy, almost always
failing and causing each other enormous pain in the process. Men come
out of this depiction far worse, as this is undoubtedly a feminist
portrayal of the gender wars. The male characters have equal portions
of tragedy, hurtful indifference and stupidity: Joe, Heidi's love
interest, simply cannot share intimate moments, communicate his
feelings or even admit that he has them; he can have plenty of sex, of
course, but emotion seems beyond him. When he finally does encounter a
moment of pause about his relationship with Heidi, he propositions the
local homosexual in the mistaken belief that this 'weakness' might mean
he is gay. The other male figure presented are Heidi's mother's
lecherous boyfriend, various tourist-types solely on the lookout for
sex, and two fathers, one who is wooden and emotionless, the other a
manipulative liar ... hardly an appealing mob.
Heidi, however, is an engaging character whose naive attempts to win
affection are painful. At once child-like and innocent yet womanly and
sexual, her exploitation, isolation and rejection are bitter and
tragic; like most teenagers she struggles to learn from her mistakes
and merely rebounds to the next. A scene in a Chinese restaurant where
she swallows an entire bowl of chilies is symbolic of the self-torture
that young women often force themselves to endure in failing
relationships. Strongly acted by Abbie Cornish, Heidi's eventual
redemption is not unpredictable but nor is it overplayed or
overemphasized ... and when it does come it seems welcome, even happy.
Somersault plays like one long life-lesson, though its themes and
implications are timeless and universal for all young people. A
well-crafted film whose only fault is a tendency to overstate its
men-as-villains and women-as-victims premise.
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