DVD: Drifting Aimlessly

Somersault (3.5/5 stars)

This is the story of an Australian teenage girl, who after getting caught attempting to seduce her mother's boyfriend, runs away to a remote ski resort town and attempts to meet up with a boy she used to know. After he refuses to see her, she decides to stay in the area and see what she can make of it, as she has nowhere else to go.

She goes to a bar, gets picked up by a young man who casts her aside the very next day, and ends up meeting another one who she advances upon but isn't receptive at first. He gets her a hotel room, and eventually she ends staying in a flat formerly inhabited by the hotel owner's son, gets a job at a local gas station, all the while pursuing this man. Eventually they get together, but they have different ideas about what their relationship really is; she thinks it is something like love, he is very flippant and doesn't see it as that much of a big deal. Eventually she starts looking for what she wants in other places.

With maybe one exception, there isn't any heightened drama to the story, it meanders along as this lonely girl has a string of relationships trying to find love but instead gets used. She is a confused teenager attempting to live an adult life and gets emotionally punished for it, basically failing for the short time that we see her to achieve a level of emotional maturity.

While the movie could have used more plot, the acting and direction (there are some really beautifully done gimmick shots throughout the movie that I really liked) make up for it to a large degree. So while this movie is very slow and moody, aimless, just like the main character, if you can get into something just to enjoy the characters and scenery you may enjoy it.