""Do you love me?"" asks teenage runaway Heidi (Abbie Cornish) of a recent acquaintance, as casually as if she's enquiring about his favourite colour. After being rumbled mid-grope with her mum's bloke, Heidi drifts off to a ski resort, wielding her blossoming sexuality like a blunt instrument, but making the classic mistake of confusing physical intimacy with emotional acceptance. In the icy environment, she slowly defrosts and rouses to a kind of sexual awakening - but not without picking up a rack of painful baggage in the process.

Cornish is sensational, perfectly pitching Heidi as damaged, barely ripe, but aching with erotic yearning. Director Cate Shortland's hovering, hand-held camera sustains a mood of fragile intimacy while drawing out the constant crackle of menace in the air. The theme of small-town repression is highlighted by sterile but sumptuous cinematography: all tepid blue and sexless beige, with the odd vivid red at points of passion.

For some, it'll feel self-consciously arty, and Heidi's crash-course in reality is a little too convenient in places (a character with Asperger's seems wheeled in purely to emphasise her lack of empathy). But the glacial pace leaves room for some outstanding support - - notably the simmering Sam Worthington as an equally confused farm-boy. It's also satisfying to see an Australian film spurn the cultural accent in favour of a human story with a broad and biting emotional range.

DVD Extras:

The disposable deleted scenes are complemented by solid interviews and a short where Shortland flexes her stylistic muscles in a skit on Japanese immigrants in Sydney. Plus, an excellent Making Of that, despite the film's languid tone, reveals a shoot of shiny, happy Aussies.