Abbie Cornish was twenty-one when she took on the role of sixteen year old Heidi in Cate Shortland's coming of age drama Somersault. Often, she seems even younger. Filmed in a wispy blue light, the baby-faced blond instinctively uses sex as a means of both fun and survival.
First time Australian director Cate Shortland puts her audience through a spectacularly tense time. It's hard to think of another coming of age film, so dreamy and artfully photographed, that feels more like a horror movie. After Heidi gets caught in a more than suggestive kiss with her mother's boyfriend, she decides to run away. She heads to a tourist ski town: no money, no skills, long legs, and that open, impressionable face. It takes surprisingly little--the offer of a free drink, a bed to sleep in--to get Heidi undressed.
Somersault tells a timeless tale, yet at the same time, is never predictable. For a beautiful girl, sex is the most easily available resource. The unfortunate path Heidi takes does not come as a surprise. Her childish, swagger, however, is altogether captiving. When will Heidi break down? How will she break down? Maybe, she'll escape intact? You just don't know. Cornish's performance, so simple and straightforward on the surface, is rich with complexity. You can't look away
