Save your money for something good and enjoyable

brilliant actors, brilliant editing

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

These days films are full of CGI, well known names, huge budgets and marketing campaigns. Yet they only last for few moments.Of course, we all value different things in films. For some it's the acting quality that matters, for others it's the aforementioned CGI. Then some prefer the films to have great script, or direction.What this particular film is about is photography. It's one of these rare gems where no matter what the story is, and no matter how bad actors are, if you appreciate photography and art, this picture will captivate you and glue you to your armchair or whatever you might be sitting on at the time for next couple of hours.It's no to say that the acting was bad. I'm not an expert by any means but I didn't find anything wrong there. The story isn't bad either. It might even stand out in some ways from your usual plot.And the soundtrack is as beautiful as the photography.That's why the 8 from me. If it wasn't for the beauty of the shots, I would probably give it a 6 or 7, but that particular beauty will remind me of itself from time to time and I'm sure I'll watch this film a few times more.

Somersault has a lot of good things about it. Visually it looks beautiful and eerie. The music, while not enhancing some scenes to their potential, fits the visuals as naive and pretty. The acting is excellent, the conflict between Heidi and her mum is a stand out- as well as some key scenes at the end. The story is simple but touching and interesting.Where does Somersault fail? The script could have been tightened. It went off developing all these different characters (the coworker girl, that other lady). While character development is a good thing, it felt out of place in this movie. The story is essentially about *Heidi* and her flaws as a person, NOT all the other characters. When I re watched this, I skipped 90% of the unneeded extra character development scenes and the movie became a lot more moving and entertaining. If the movie was presented in a typical Hollywood fashion, the extra character scenes could be hyped up a lot more, but the style the director took prevents this from being done in an entertaining way.This movie is 100 minutes long. They could have cut it down to 60 or even 40. If the script was watered down so it KEPT TO THE POINT OF THE STORY then I would be giving it 8/10. So have your DVD remote ready and skip some parts :P

As the credit rolled to indicate the end of the movie on my TV I was feeling quite rewarded by this work. I had some memories of the title when it was on our big screens in Sydney but somehow did not go to see it despite some good reports as something rather special. Well it has been very special for me. I just read a few comments I as was curious how the rest of the English speaking world felt about it. I was glad to see some I found well expressed intelligent and positive . Others, well others, in a democratic world, are to be expected to be anything. In such forum we're all expert aren't we! Yes I did enjoy very much this effort, I always worry a little about typical Australian movies, but I found this one delivering something special as human experience and experiment, told simply but with strong statements. Told with plenty of time for the viewer to include her or himself in it and therefore think as if also concerned with the development of the situation. I was rather amused as the so called "kissing" episode that actually started the whole saga, am I really mistaking in thinking otherwise,more in the region of coitus interruptus. May be it's just me, but I did not think it was just kissing matter! And in this subject I wander why some comments bothered to describe the guy in a very derogatory manner, after all he was the mum's guy and whoever he would have been in this age range would not have mattered very much more. If you had a good meal but one more nice dish is served, would you pass on? I guess there are different answers to this but I'm thinking of the realistics and honest ones. Just the same the story often get you places but keeps away from the predictable or graphic outcomes. Yes it's full of beauty and poetry against the rough language and natural human environment. And I did like all this!

I must confess some bias, being a massive fan of the Snowy area :) This film I can see not appealing to those who have never been to the Cooma/Jindabyne area of NSW. They will have no point of reference. For those who have however, this film is simply brilliant. I have stayed at the motel Heidi stayed at. I have visited friends with houses like Joes. The mood/feeling of Heidi around the edges of Lake Jindabyne are uncanny. There is a feeling down there I have not had anywhere else in Australia. A barren, cold feeling that is at once breathtaking and heartbreaking.Objectively, one could indeed see this movie being light on concerning the plot. In my mind and experiences though, I have never been so engrossed. Heidi and Joes relationship is so tantalising. So possible. It might seem to some as not realistic, but it really is. This is how many, many Australians express themselves ( on a good day! ) It is pure, and wonderful, and simply amazing and I don't care that this may have been the only film close to warranting attention in 2004. It is regardless completely brilliant, and I for one will be holding it close to my heart for a long long time to come.Australian cinema very rarely gets this close to actual emotion, and this film hits it again and again. Some of it may be contrived or stereotypical, but overall it really is a gem hidden amongst 21st century Australian cinema pap. Enjoy it please :)