The Dressmaker

THE DRESSMAKER

Director : Jocelyn Moorhouse
Year : 2015
Genre : Comedy
Rating : ***1/2

Having seen the numerous posters and trailers promoting it, you would be forgiven to believe that 'The Dressmaker' was a charming and rather quaint drama centred around the worlds of fashion and romance. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. In reality the film, which is an adaptation of Rosalie Ham's popular 2000 novel of the same, is a sometimes spiteful and often very funny black comedy that wears the veil of a traditional romantic drama but secretely hides a surprisingly vindictive and downright peculiar heart. In the film, Academy Award winner Kate Winslet stars as Tilly Dunnage - a beautiful yet tight-lipped modiste who returns to her Australian hometown of Dungatar to reap a ruthless yet stylish revenge on those who falsely accused her of murder as a child.

Tonally, the film frequently spirals out of control throughout it's overlong running time - switching from lighthearted conversation to dichometric and quite spontaneous scenes of death and rape at the drop of a hat. This means that, in retrospect, the narrative doesn't run smoothly and the story ultimately ends up splitting at the seams. However, while it may not stitch together as a complete whole , I for one thoroughly enjoyed 'The Dressmaker's' bizarre unpredictability. Winslet shines and utterly relishes her role as the ostracised prodigal daughter while Judy Davis and Hugo Weaving equally steal the show as Tilly's bonkers mother and a flamboyantly camp cross-dressing cop respectively.