Somersault (film)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Somersault is a 2004 Australian romantic drama film written and directed by Cate Shortland (in her feature directorial debut).
Exploring the themes of human sexuality, alienation and emotion, Somersault is about a 16-year-old girl named Heidi (Abbie Cornish) who flees her Canberra home to the mountain town of Jindabyne in New South Wales. There she meets Joe (Worthington), the son of a local farmer, and gradually forms a relationship with him, despite his difficulty in expressing his feelings. He also seems to be unsure of his sexual orientation, despite having better-than-average luck meeting women.
The soundtrack is written and performed by Australian band Decoder Ring. Some scenes were shot at the Ryrie homestead at Michelago, New South Wales.
Plot
Heidi, a pretty teenager living in the Canberra suburbs, flees home after her mother, Nicole, finds her trying to seduce Nicole's boyfriend. She takes a bus to a ski resort in the Snowy River National Park where a man lives who once gave her his business card and invited her to contact him if she was ever in town. However, when she phones him, his wife answers the phone and he says that he does not remember her. She meets some other teenagers at a club and goes home with them. In the morning, the boy she slept with tells her he is going back to Sydney and, when she asks if she can go with him, one of his friends says he already has a girlfriend. She tries flirtation to get a job in a ski equipment shop and to talk to a man in a parked car who was eyeing her, but without success.
In a bar, a young man called Joe who saw her in the club the previous night buys her a drink and strikes up a conversation. Without anywhere to sleep, she asks to go with him and he takes her to a motel but leaves quickly for work in the morning without suggesting further contact. She strikes up a friendship with Irene, the woman who runs the motel and gives her breakfast. She asks vainly for a job but, after Heidi says that her mother is dead, Irene allows her to stay in the room and pay the following day. Irene warns her that the resort is now out of season and there are no jobs available. Heidi calls Joe at his parents' farm but he doen't return her calls. Irene, knowing she doesn't have the money for the room, puts her in her son's flat, though she still wants rent in due course. In order to pay for it, Heidi needs a job, and is hired at a petrol station. Joe sees her by accident and they go for a drink and back to her flat. Her co-worker is Bianca and they become friends after Bianca's mother offers her a lift home, where Joe is waiting.
One night, Joe and Heidi encounter some of his friends, who mock her for working in a petrol station. When Joe and Heidi go to a Chinese restaurant, she asks him if he loves her and, when he refuses to make any commitment or even discuss it, swallows a small bowl of chilli. He drags her to the bathroom to sick it up and takes her back to the motel. He then visits a gay neighbour, Richard, and after saying how much he is obsessed by Heidi and drinking a lot of whisky, tries to seduce him. Richard says he doesn't know what he wants. At home, his father ignores his emotional distress.
Heidi, upset by being rejected and neglected by Joe and by being been forced out of her job by gossip, goes to the night club and gets drunk. Two young men pick her up and go home with her and they smoke cannabis. Though she is barely conscious, they kiss and undress her, at which point Joe comes in and beats up one of them who is insolent. After they leave, he condemns her promiscuity and she accuses him of not caring for her, which he does not deny and drives off, despite her following him out to his car naked and begging him to stay.
The next morning, Irene tells Heidi that, after the scene the night before, she is no longer welcome to stay. Heidi forces Irene to admit that her son is in prison for murder and confesses that her mother was not dead after all and she had to leave. Irene asks Heidi to call her mother and make amends. The film ends as Heidi's mother comes to pick her up, embracing her, and Joe comes to say goodbye.
Cast
- Abbie Cornish as Heidi
- Sam Worthington as Joe
- Hollie Andrew as Bianca
- Olivia Pigeot as Nicole
- Lynette Curran as Irene
- Damian De Montemas as Adam
- Leah Purcell as Diane
- Nathaniel Dean as Stuart
- Anne Louise Lambert as Martha
- Erik Thomson as Richard
- Ben Tate as Sean
