Director Report Card: Cate Shortland (2004)

This one might be an adventure. Usually, when I do a Director's Report Card, I'm talking about a filmmaker I'm at least partially familiar with. With every one of these I've done before, I've seen at least one of their movies before.

This one will be different. I've never seen a Cate Shortland movie before. So why am I devoting an entire retrospective to her? You've probably notice I've been watching my way through the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in an incredibly convoluted and ass-backwards manner. Shortland was plucked out of relative obscurity by the Hollywood blockbuster machine to helm “Black Widow,” the delayed-on-account-of-the-apocalypse newest entry in the billion dollar franchise. Before that superhero flick is (eventually) released, I figured I'd take a look at Shortland's previous credits. They seem pretty interesting. I have no idea how this'll work out but here goes anyway.

1. Somersault

Everything I know about Cate Shortland, I've gleamed from her Wikipedia and IMDb pages but, here, let me attempt to summarize her early career anyway. After graduating from film school, she directed a handful of well received short films. Supposedly, several of these won some local awards. Of her shorts, one in particular seems to be relevant to her feature debut. “Joy” followed a teenage girl as she dealt with her daily life and dysfunctional family. Shortland would draw upon similar themes with “Somersault,” her debut feature and a breakout movie for the director.

Heidi is a somewhat socially awkward sixteen year old girl living in a suburb outside Canberra. One aimless day, she attempts to seduce her mom's boyfriend for no reason she can understand. After being caught and having an argument, she runs away from home. She drifts around for a few nights before arriving in tourist town Jindabyne. As winter arrives, she manages to find a room in a hotel and gets a job in a gas station. She catches the eye of a handsome young man named Joe, who seems to be questioning his own sexuality. Yet Heidi's desperate need for affection and approval soon leads her back into trouble.

Throughout “Somersault,” we see Heidi cut out images from magazines and save them in a scrapbook. Later, a key scene has her posing in front of a mirror. She pantomimes what she thinks a seduction looks like. These childish rituals point towards an important idea in the film: Heidi is basically a child. Though she is pushed out on her own and having these sexual adventures, she doesn’t understand how the world works at all. This makes “Somersault” an especially pointed coming-of-age story. This isn’t a story about a child transitioning into adulthood. This is a movie about a lost kid, trying her best to find some catharsis in a confusing world.

That “Somersault” is so upfront about Heidi’s sexual promiscuity also differentiates the film from the rest of the indie coming-of-age lot. Heidi often sleeps with guys right after meeting them. While trying to find a job, she makes an incredibly awkward attempt to seduce her potential hirer. The plot is motivated by her spontaneous choice to make a move on her mom’s boyfriend. Heidi has clearly learned one thing: She can use her sex appeal to get affection and attention. That seduction is the only area she has any power. That the visceral pleasures of sex can distract from the awkwardness she feels all the time. Shortland never judges her protagonist for these actions, presenting what Heidi does honestly without slut-shaming. “Somersault” intimately understands why a teen girl like Heidi seeks out sex the way she does.

Ultimately, “Somersault” is making a pretty clear point. Heidi makes mistakes the entire movie. She flees from them because the world offers her little forgiveness. She has internalized this lesson, never offering herself any forgiveness either. It’s only in the film’s closing minutes that she realizes, sometimes, a parent’s love can forgive anything. By asking her mom for forgiveness, what Heidi is really learning is to forgive herself. Without ever getting preachy about it, “Somersault” presents a clear lesson on the power of self-forgiveness and love.

“Somersault” wasn’t Abbie Cornish’s first performance, as she appeared in several movies and television shows before. Yet this was clearly the breakout role for the actress. With her blonde hair even brighter than usual, looking like a complete naïf in the woods, Cornish exposes herself physically and emotionally. She perfectly plays Heidi’s confusion and naivety. The small quiver in her voice, her body language, immediately puts you in the same emotional headspace as this character. She’s so convincing that you honestly forget you are watching a performer at all. It just seems like you are seeing a real teenage girl.

Cornish is not the only future star to breakout in “Somersault.” The film would also be an early appearance for Sam Worthington. Thanks to some truly wooden turns, playing forgettable protagonists in sci-fi flicks like “Avatar” and “Terminator Salvation,” Worthington does not have the best reputation as an actor. Yet the evidence suggest it was really the scripts failing Worthington in those movies. For “Somersault,” he would win an Australian Film Institute Award, the country’s equivalent to the Oscars. Worthington is naturalistic as Joe. He shows the young man’s insecurities largely through facial expressions and body language. He’s certainly good, showing a depth as a performer and a certain leading man charm that his Hollywood career has largely underutilized.

However, Joe’s parts of the film are also the biggest issue with “Somersault.” The world around him, represented by his stoic father, demand men perform in a certain way. This conflicts with his own feelings, his changing sexuality and growing attachment to Heidi. This certainly connects with the film’s wider themes of parental dysfunction and self-forgiveness, especially in a moment when a drunk Joe confronts his dad. Yet any time “Somersault” pulls away from Heidi, the film goes off-balance. This is ultimately her story and the moments focusing on Joe feel like digressions. Especially the scenes devoted to his attraction to the gay renter in the house. Really, the story of a young man navigating his own sexuality in the isolated Australian countryside should’ve been its own movie.

Joe’s subplot points towards a larger issue “Somersault” encounters as it goes along. The film slowly veers towards full-on melodrama. As Heidi continues to screw up, the people she thought were her friends callously abandon her. That co-worker is especially mean. This culminate in an attempted threesome with two random guys she meets, both men being portrayed as cartoonishly obnoxious. The film’s miscalculated sense of drama peaks during an unintentionally hilarious moment where Heidi screams while spraying a hose at a window. These scenes capture the volatile teenage emotions of the film’s protagonist perhaps a little too well.

Visually, “Somersault” is very much of its time. The film appears to be shot digitally, with the slightly washed-out but smooth appearance that comes with it. That is combined with an often handheld style of shooting. This recalls roughly a hundred other indie dramas that were being made around the same time. Sure, it works for the movie. This is a small scale and grounded story, so the style is befitting. Yet I found the more visually expressive moments, when Cate Shortland really shows off her strengths as a director, more compelling. Such as a neon-tinged party Heidi attends or a moment when she sings a nursery rhyme and claps her hands.

One scene, in particular, is very well done and points towards the kind of movies Shortland would make in the future. After befriending a co-worker, Heidi spends some time at the girl’s home. There, she discovers that her new friend’s father is the shop owner she attempted to seduce earlier in the movie. He then drives the girl out into the country. The interaction that follows is extremely tense. The audience is uncertain of the man’s motivations, especially as he makes Heidi more and more uncomfortable. The cramped location, the interior of a truck, only adds to the moment’s grim tension. It’s a scene that suggests Shortland could make a strong thriller and it would seem she’d follow that instinct.

Because it’s an indie drama from the mid-2000s, “Somersault” also has an indie rock soundtrack. Australian band Decoder Ring provides most of the songs and score. As you might expect, the music is heavy on electronic ambiance, sparse instrumentation, and lots of whispery female vocals. This isn’t necessarily a mark against the music. It certainly fits the alienation and loneliness Heidi feels, especially in tracks like “Heidi’s Theme” and “More Than Scarlet.” Some of the songs, like the title track, are even rather pretty. “Rough Sex” has a harsher rock edge to it that I enjoy. This is a good example of a score that totally serves the film that I probably wouldn’t listen to on its own.

“Somersault” wouldn’t just win an Australian Film Institute Award for its leading man. In fact, the film would sweep the award show, becoming the first in the program’s history to win in all thirteen film-related categories. Pretty impressive for such a humble, low-budget production. Internationally, the film would not make as big a splash. It would win some positive reviews without being too noticed. That’s how it is, sometimes. Taken on its own, “Somersault” is a very good riff on the coming-of-age story, beautifully acted and compassionately written, that doesn’t entirely escape the pitfalls of the genre. [Grade: B]