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Review #127 of 365
Film: Somersault [NR—should be R] 105 minutes
WIP™ Scale: $6
Where Viewed: Landmark Varsity Theatre, Seattle, WA
When 1st Seen: 18 May 2006
Time: 9:30 p.m.
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The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language defines somersault as a noun, meaning, “1. An acrobatic stunt in which the body rolls forward or backward in a complete revolution with the knees bent and the feet coming over the head. Also called somerset, also called regionally tumbleset. 2. A complete reversal, as of sympathies or opinions.”
One of the first things I generally try to do when I see a film is ascertain why it was called what it was called. In considering this Australian import written and directed by Cate Shortland with the basic plot centering on the out-of-town escapades of a 16-year old girl named Heidi (Abbie Cornish) who flees home by bus after her mother walks in on her in a compromising position with her mother’s boyfriend, I find the first definition offered to be a poor fit. While Heidi is a complex character blending of a clapping-game-playing, still-fascinated-by-leaves-blowing-in-the-wind, red-mitten-enthusiast, six-year old and a trying-to-understand-what-a-real-relationship-means, has-to-get-a-job-and-pay-the-rent, 26-year old, she definitely showed no signs of acrobatic stunts, rolls, tumbles, or gymnastics of any kind really. So, moving on to definition number two. Well, the concept is certainly compelling. “A complete reversal in sympathies or opinions.” Let’s check this out. So, Heidi, as mentioned, flees town and tries to hook up with a guy in a resort town who gave her his card to look him up if she ever got to that town. Which she does, and guess what? Yep, he doesn’t remember her and hangs up. So, what’s a poor 16-year old girl in a strange town, in the middle of the night to do for a place to stay? How about cruise a local bar for an easy-looking guy and go home with him? Next morning, however, turns out he has a girl friend and, moreover, he’s leaving to go back to Sydney—hence no room for Heidi, whom, by the way, has fallen madly in love with him at first sight. Fortunately, for Heidi, she is nothing if she is not resilient. So after failing to secure a job in a ski shop, her feminine wiles simply did not work their usual magic on the shopkeeper, she does what any logical and rational 16-year old would do, she returns to the bar to cast her net again. Much to her delight, the devilishly handsome, though mullet-bearing, Joe (Sam Worthington) remembers seeing her the night before going home with the other guy, but still finds her agreeable enough to take back to a shady little motel called the Siesta—not to his home, of course. Heidi, this will come as no surprise, falls instantly in love with Joe. Joe, on the other hand, has some serious misgivings about any relationship with her for reasons that will become tumultuously clear later. In any case, the two sort of string along together.
"...this Australian import...wasn’t a good story to start with, and it’s told in a drab and confusing way...no growth...no somersault...it just was."For a while, the story shifts focus onto Joe’s life, and you start to wonder, “Hey, is this a story about Heidi or Joe?” Heidi finally gets a job at a BP convenience store over the serious reservations of the current employee and a flat in the Siesta after the lowly widowed manager rents Heidi her son’s old apartment. Well, I don’t like to give away plot points, so, I’ll be a bit vague here. Let’s just say that Joe and Heidi don’t work out so well, so Heidi casts her net again. Ok, so that’s enough, I think, to answer definition 2. “A complete reversal, as of sympathies or opinions.” My original opinion of Heidi wasn’t very good. When I found out she was 16, I certainly felt very sorry for her—I thought she was more like 18 or 19. So, I felt sorry for this kid to have been so overly sexualized at such a young age as to get her self into all these situations and to have some very stilted view of what love means and what a relationship is. Still, I felt she was old enough to be able to tell right from wrong etc. She bore a tremendous amount of guilt for what she did with her mother’s boyfriend. So, I had sympathy for her to a degree and an opinion that wasn’t too great. By the end of the film, guess what? Correct. My opinion remained unchanged, and I had no more or less sympathy (maybe a little less sympathy) for her. Certainly, I had no complete reversal. Yet, wait, maybe that reversal should not be applied to viewers of the story, but rather to Heidi herself. Well, unfortunately, we saw no complete reversal in her. Maybe she went back home in the end and became a good girl and got some psychological counseling, or maybe not. We’ll never know because the movie ends before we would know.
My high school newspaper advisor used to hate what we called the ‘definition’ article. Where one writes a review or story utilizing the definition of a word, so she would have loathed this review and found it trite—which was her favorite word. I apologize if others agree, and don’t like the stab I took at this, however, I felt it was highly applicable here. Especially since I generally get quite a number of inquiries as to why a movie is called this or that. At least, now, everyone will know that I have no idea why this film is called Somersault. Jumping Jacks was taken?
Well that was a little tongue-in-cheek. Honestly, I don’t like to be critical of movies. They are my mainstay after all. But, this, was not a good movie. This wasn’t a good story to start with, and it’s told in a drab and confusing way. The acting was very forced. The characters were oblique. There was subtext going on in a realm that I guess I just couldn’t tap into. Heidi is not a likeable protagonist. She might be very beautiful, but she just isn’t someone I could grow to care about. Most of the people in the film are not very nice people. They all have some sort of nasty background or prejudices they hold dear. I don’t know really what the point of the film was. There was no growth, there was no somersault, it just was.
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