The Dressmaker
A silly trip Down Under
So, from the few clips I had seen, I had expected a completely different type of movie. I’ve let this movie simmer to try and decide whether I liked it; suffice to stay I still don’t know. It’s such a varying film of heightened moments that it still has me thrown.
The movie sees Myrtle or ‘Tilly’ Dunnage return to her small hometown of Dungatar. This doesn’t please the residents who knew Tilly as a murderer when she was only a child. Tilly begins helping the townsfolk using her sewing skills. Along the way she makes dresses, unearths the truth and plans revenge.
Jocelyn Moorhouse directs this…um ..hybrid film with considerable talent. Even if I disliked parts, the movie ticks along and she strings it up with a clear playfulness. It could be viewed that this playful nature goes too far and makes the film look like a wreck; I wouldn’t be that harsh but I can see that side of things. She’s taken perhaps too big a bite of the proverbial apple in trying to play around with lots of genres/ideas.
At least the look of this Australian set mash up of genres is quality. The opening is like a Clint Eastwood scene, only with a leather cased sewing machine as the weapon. The best visual thread is the costuming; the costume team really sell these dresses as life changing items for the residents.
Moorhouse and P. J. Hogan seam the screenplay with a buzzing whirlwind of madness. It has some moments that I enjoyed, the writing almost feels clever but then we’re tossed into a new type of idea or genre. It’s ludicrous and barmy; their writing resembles farce which is all fine but then they swing back into drama, leading us to one totally unexpected moment, unless you’d read the book of course.
Kate Winslet is great, caught up as she tries to make her mum remember her or scheming as she plots her revenge. Judy Davis made the film, stopping the more slapstick side of things from going overboard with her deadpan dialogue. Sarah Snook was the most interesting for me, just because her character was so badly drawn in being meek and then whammo, hot and bitchy like a Mean Girls’ 'plastic'.
I still don’t know where I am with this film; it veers so often and so wildly that I can’t put my finger on what it really did in terms of film-making. It’s a silly trip Down Under that isn’t really entertaining, appearing like an old fashioned feature but without the class.
5.5/10
