Not a bad film, an unpretentious leisurely examination of just how tough it is to find someone able to show you love -- in case we didn't already know. If Heidi, Abbie Cornish, a toothsome teen ager, so gloriously blond that even her eyebrows seem bleached, has such trouble, the rest of us must have gone through absolute hell. She's sweet, shy, submissive, and aching to be touched.
How she manages to run into so many male nincompoops is hard to understand -- a lecherous Mom's boyfriend, a guy who's worried he might be gay, two rich kids who pick her up drunk and take her home for a threesome, the father of a tentative girl friend who lies in order to dishonor her. A regular line-up of losers. Any normal man would immediately comply when she begs to have her hand held, cuddle her like a tiny gerbil, then squeeze and bite her and have done with it.
It isn't impossible for men to follow this movie, given that the male viewers are of normal character. It's that men are less interested than woman, and perhaps a little embarrassed, by films whose interpretations depend on emotional nuances. Men tend to ask themselves questions like, "What would John Wayne do?" However, it's an interesting effort, this minor film about a lonely, narcissistic young girl. "Narcissistic" in the Freudian sense of needing to be loved, not in the everyday sense of self-loving. The performances are fine, and the blue photography takes us out of the urban setting and away from the more common outback into a cold and snowy universe that most non-Australians are likely to be unfamiliar with. It also provides us with a glimpse into the lower-prole life of those who are barely making it in this setting, the people who drive rusted pickup trucks and live in shabby motel rooms and gurgle beer.
It might have used a bit of humor, something to relieve the heavy volume of dreariness. Nobody ever seems happy or amused. At best, Heidi shows hope, which -- twice -- is dashed.
However, a somersault is when you fall forward, roll over, and wind up standing erect, and that, basically, is the trajectory of the plot. Heidi takes off from home with a backpack, victimized, falls in with flawed company, and is rescued by a forgiving mother at the end. Heidi may or may not have learned anything from this escapade but perhaps her mother has.
How she manages to run into so many male nincompoops is hard to understand -- a lecherous Mom's boyfriend, a guy who's worried he might be gay, two rich kids who pick her up drunk and take her home for a threesome, the father of a tentative girl friend who lies in order to dishonor her. A regular line-up of losers. Any normal man would immediately comply when she begs to have her hand held, cuddle her like a tiny gerbil, then squeeze and bite her and have done with it.
It isn't impossible for men to follow this movie, given that the male viewers are of normal character. It's that men are less interested than woman, and perhaps a little embarrassed, by films whose interpretations depend on emotional nuances. Men tend to ask themselves questions like, "What would John Wayne do?" However, it's an interesting effort, this minor film about a lonely, narcissistic young girl. "Narcissistic" in the Freudian sense of needing to be loved, not in the everyday sense of self-loving. The performances are fine, and the blue photography takes us out of the urban setting and away from the more common outback into a cold and snowy universe that most non-Australians are likely to be unfamiliar with. It also provides us with a glimpse into the lower-prole life of those who are barely making it in this setting, the people who drive rusted pickup trucks and live in shabby motel rooms and gurgle beer.
It might have used a bit of humor, something to relieve the heavy volume of dreariness. Nobody ever seems happy or amused. At best, Heidi shows hope, which -- twice -- is dashed.
However, a somersault is when you fall forward, roll over, and wind up standing erect, and that, basically, is the trajectory of the plot. Heidi takes off from home with a backpack, victimized, falls in with flawed company, and is rescued by a forgiving mother at the end. Heidi may or may not have learned anything from this escapade but perhaps her mother has.