Okay, so that�s harsh. It�s far from horrible. It�s just either too deeply flawed for all the critical praise it has received or I�ve become too accustomed for movies that spell everything out for their audience. Perhaps it�s both.
Abbie Cornish plays Heidi, a sixteen year old from an unnamed Australian city. Extremely inward and with a constant need for affection, she�s kicked out by her mother after seducing her boyfriend. She flees to Jindabyne, a small ski town in inland NSW, hoping to stay with an old one night stand. He flatly rejects her when she calls him, and she is forced to cope on her own.
It�s one of those movies where the outsider arrives and changes everyone she meets. She sleeps with and then falls for Sam Worthington�s farm boy Joe, works at a service station with the blunt Bianca (Hollie Andrew), and gets sympathy (and a place to stay) from motel owner Irene (Lynette Curran). Everyone has their own secrets and fears, and Heidi�s arrival brings them out.
Funnily enough, Heidi herself was one of the biggest problems of the movie. Maybe it was just me, but there was something really irritating with all the problems she brings on herself. You can�t have a movie without a main character that needs to grow at least a little, but this was just extreme. Heidi is childlike and sultry at the same time. She�s innocent while she uses sex to keep going. That was the whole point, I understand, but it just didn�t gel. Heidi would have much better served as a supporting character in a different movie.
The tone of the movie is another problem. Which isn�t necessarily the sign of a bad movie, but everyone seems to have big heavy problems and for many of them it�s never really clear why. It�s revealed that Irene probably has, more than anyone else, earned the right to feeling sorry for herself, but she stands as the most together character in the piece. Joe, incapable of laughter or joy or any kind of emotion, is the worst. Once again, that�s the whole point, but really� thank God that Irene and Bianca are in the picture, so we can have some characters that aren�t completely inwardly focused and overflowing with angst.
Cate Shortland, the director, definitely has talent, but needs to be way less of an art student. With her directing, she�s far too happy to put arty shots of leaves being blown by the wind, or out of focus lights, like she�s trying to win a photography contest. Perhaps she wrote it with a drinking contest in mind- one shot every time you see some visual symbolism. Her writing, meanwhile, seems to be screaming �LOOK! LOOK! SUBTEXT! METAPHOR! SUBTLETY! LOOK HOW MUCH I�M NOT HAVING MY CHARACTERS SAY THINGS!� It�s ironic that the writing screams these things, really, but there you go. It�s really far too indicative of Australian films. If they�re not broad comedies that try to appeal to absolutely everyone and end up being not funny, they�re arty fare like this that end up being just that bit too arty.
So, after trashing Somersault like that, where�s the good? The acting all around is great, but Abbie Cornish is amazing. As annoying as I sometimes found Heidi, Cornish absolutely nails the uncertain sixteen year-old brilliantly. Even if the film itself doesn�t deserve awards, she most definitely does. As irritating as the visual symbolism can be, it is sometimes transfixing. If Shortland tones down on this for her next movie, it could be brilliant. The score, by alternative band Decoder Ring, is very, very good, and a soundtrack worth buying.
So, this movie is too flawed for me to recommend (except to those who love slow arty wank, and there are those out there- enjoy yourselves!), it�s also got enough goodness in there to show a little ray of light for Shortland�s future- and an enormous ray of light for Abbie Cornish�s.
20 minute making of with actors wanking about how great everyone is.
