screen stage sounds stories style and sketches: the dressmaker movie review

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Movie Overview: Based on the best-selling novel by Rosalie Ham, The Dressmaker is a bittersweet, comedy-drama set in early 1950s Australia. Tilly Dunnage (played by Kate Winslet, a beautiful and talented misfit, who after many years working as a dressmaker in exclusive Parisian fashion houses, returns home to the tiny middle-of-nowhere town of Dungatar to right the wrongs of the past. Not only does she reconcile with her ailing, eccentric mother Molly (played Judy Davis) and unexpectedly falls in love with the pure-hearted Teddy (played by Liam Hemsworth), but armed with her sewing machine and incredible sense of style, she transforms the women of the town and in doing so gets sweet revenge on those who did her wrong...

My thoughts: Let me qualify that I have not read the book and had no idea until I grabbed the movie that it's based on a book... Something I will have the grab and put on my 2017 reading list...

This is a movie I wanted to see when it was in the cinema, but not being a big budget over the top shoot em up film I never got a chance... Hubby doesn't believe in seeing "movies you can watch on the tv at the big screen". So I only got the chance to watch it over the weekend, finally but mainly because I am dying to see The Dressmaker Costume Exhibition. Note: that is just about to close, in just over a week... And wanted to see the movie well before I saw the exhibition!

I loved the film and the beautiful costumes set against the rural backdrop was amazing... It had a Dior feel about it, imagine 1947 when he launched his New Look (just two years after the second world war ended, I think). Christian Dior at the time was telling women it was time to get rid of the ugly gloomy uniforms and/or rags, which many women were still wearing due to the war restrictions on fabrics and fibers... Woman across Europe, England, Australia and the States ran out to get their hands on Dior's New Look or knock offs - not unlike the women in this small town transforming themselves through high fashion made by Tilly...

Before I get into the nuts and bolts of my review, I will say the movie is apparently a comedy - drama however I feel it had more of a shakespearean comedy tragedy feel to it... Tilly's life is so complex and there are so many shades of grey and black that at times you can miss the comedy in there unless you get the subtle references, somewhat a black comedy in my opinion.

As I have said the movie is set in a small country town known as Dungatar in rural Australia in the early 1950s. The beginning of the film shows a woman leaving a beautiful steam train in the middle of the night with her Singer sewing machine... I just loved the scene and had sewing machine envy at that moment - nothing like an old Singer to get your heart racing... And then you see this perfectly manicured woman light up a cigarette saying "I'm back, you bastards",  at that moment I thought, yes! we are in for a ride...

The film weaves wonderful flashbacks to a younger Tilly as she tries to understand what she did to the towns folks to hate her so much and why they had her removed from the town at 10 years old... As each memory comes flooding back she tries to come to terms with the fact that she is indeed a 'murderess'... 

One of the key characters is Tilly's love interest Teddy... Strong, lovable and that body, thank God for the Hemsworth Boys... Amen sisters! And those magic words he utters... "I reckon you'll make some bloke pretty happy" and "I'll keep you safe" would make any woman swoon and run into his arms, but not our heroine Tilly. Teddy has to work hard to win her heart... But their budding romance is magical...

Notable cast members for me are Judy Davis - she never disappoints as the mentally unstable alcoholic mother to Tilly, loving known by the town as Mad Molly... I love her transformation during the film from the mother who needs her daughters help to helping her daughter find the strength to overcome her complex past.

And then there is Hugo Weavings as the closet cross-dressing police sergeant Horatio Farrat. At times he steals the scene... Two scenes in particular. The first of him opening a box of fine fabrics and trims is priceless. The second where he is in front of the tree of mirrors... Something I don't believe any country copper I have ever met would partake in... But who knows, I have never lived in a community this close knit!

The film itself is beautifully shot and I love the juxtaposition of high fashion set against the rural country town... It adds colour to the dullness of the town and all its hidden secrets which do unravel like a cheap piece of woven fabric during the film...

As I said earlier I haven't read the book so I have no idea if it stay true to the book but the script is wonderfully written and the acting is amazing and fabulous... The film had me laughing one moment and in tears the next - I did enjoy it thoroughly, just wished I saw it earlier...

Hope you enjoyed my review and thanks for stopping by

Cheers

Gloria