Posted: 04/24/2006

Somersault

(2006)

by Anna Keizer

Anna says, “Don’t be a victim, ladies!”

I first saw this film when it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival two years ago. I was frustrated with it then, and now after seeing it a second time, I remember why.

Set in rural Australia, the story begins with sixteen year-old Heidi (Abbie Cornish) running away from home after a brief sexual encounter with her mother’s boyfriend and ending up in a small, dead-end farming town. There she meets Joe (Sam Worthington), a young man who himself seems to haven no sense of where he’s going or what he wants. They begin a sexual relationship, but one that is plagued by a lack of genuine communication or true intimacy. And still craving for more affection and tenderness, Heidi then puts herself in a series of alcohol-induced encounters where she throws her body at any man in the hopes of getting some temporary sense of being loved.

Okay, let me stop there. Does no one else see the problem with this film? I am sick to death of watching these movies where the girl mumbles and fumbles her way through the story, letting herself be victimized by the men around her. Don’t get me wrong, I understand that there really are some women – and men – who suffer from a lack of emotional intimacy and loneliness, people who simply want someone to love them. Hell, I’ve probably just described more than half the people on this planet. Wanting to be loved is part of the human condition. But come on! What is the message that writer/director Cate Shortland is trying to get across here? How is it helpful to portray a young woman who not only uses her body for attention, but also thinks the only way to happiness is through the fleeting affections of a man?

Maybe I’m so irritated by this film is because Heidi never seems to have any kind of breakthrough, any kind of epiphany about her behavior. And the film ends far too cleanly with a simple phone call to her mother, Nicole (Olivia Pigeot). So is the fact that Heidi decides to come home supposed to tell us that she has changed her ways? She’s okay now? All that emotional baggage has been thrown off for good? And when exactly did this change take place? Because it certainly didn’t happen on-screen.

Okay, I shouldn’t forget that there are some highlights to this film. For one, both Cornish and Worthington give amazing performances as two young people completely lost in their own pain and emotional chaos. For such young actors, they both give their characters a complexity that, even though we know very little about their individual histories, comes across as completely genuine and believable. Moreover, the cinematography has a beautiful dream-like quality that helps us to see the world from Abbie’s perspective, a world that she seems to travel through as if in some mystifying wonderland.

But great acting and gorgeous camerawork can’t make up for a weak story. Films are sometimes just entertainment, at other times a learning experience, and sometimes both. This movie, however, struck out on all three counts. I walked out of the theater with nothing more than a gnawing sense that I just lost two hours of my life that I could never get back. Yeah, I’d say that’s pretty frustrating.

Anna Keizer is a film critic and screenwriter living in Los Angeles.

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