The Dressmaker (2015)

Based on the best-selling novel by Rosalie Ham, this comedy-drama is set in early 1950's Australia. It's a vibrant tale of revenge, mother- daughter bonds, small-town secrets and the great power of clothes, in a movie that is both bittersweet and funny and is dominated by a stunning, multi-layered performance from Kate Winslet. Jocelyn Moorhouse's latest feature is enjoyable enough and so unexpected, and let's be honest she also has a great team to help her achieve that. In few words, "The Dressmaker" is a dark comedy in Australian style, that will catch many by surprise, especially if you love clothes and fashion in general. nikisreviews.com

Fmovies: Kate Winslet and Judy Davis steal the whole movie. Liam Hemsworth is very nice on the eye. Everyone else is a caricature.

The movie was surprisingly humorous for the first 90 minutes. Not all the one liners are in the trailer after all. But then the plot takes a dark turn and really loses its way. The book probably took its time to get all the characters to the end, but the last part of the movie feels rushed and really rather silly, in a slapstick kind of way. First the townsfolk hate Tilly then they love her, then they hate her, then they're back pleading with her to make costumes to save the town's pride ... Honestly, I felt like I was getting whiplash trying to keep up with it.

The other distracting aspect is that Kate Winslet is looking her age and while she's still fabulous, Liam Hemsworth is 15 years younger than she is in real life, and it's just not remotely believable that they were children of a similar age growing up together. Winslet was probably wearing her first makeup and heels, the day Hemsworth was born.

On the plus side, Winslet gives a flawless performance, including the Aussie accent, which is notoriously difficult to pull off convincingly. Meryl Strep's dreadful attempt at an Aussie accent in Evil Angels just proved how hard it is to do. All credit to Winslet. And it was fabulous seeing Judy Davis on the screen again. The fight between the two of them before the bath scene was hilarious.

Today I had the absolute pleasure of seeing a film I've been waiting about a decade for. 'The Dressmaker' is adapted from Rosalie Ham's bestselling Australian book which first came out in 2000, and I studied in high school about that long ago too. Ms Ham actually came and spoke at my school, and I can still remember her telling us that she was currently writing a screenplay of the book – but that she wasn't sure if the American production company would want the movie to be set in Australia or adapted to the bible-belt/deep south of America.

Well. It's the year 2015 and 'The Dressmaker' is here – and it's spectacular and spectacularly Aussie. Indeed, I couldn't have pictured a film adaptation that took the Australia out of this country-Gothic dark comedy tale, and watching the film (shot around Victoria in Horsham, Little River and Yarraville) I got tingles when I saw the town of Dungatar on the screen – bought so precisely to life. The lonely white gum trees and rocky-red dust bowl look, the rusted tin-roofs and sagging clapboard buildings. The distinctly Australian setting becomes a character unto itself, and a stark background to Tilly Dunnage's unfolding tale of style and secrets …

I absolutely loved the book when I studied it in school, and I'm thrilled to report that the film is equally fantastic and one of the best adaptations I've seen. Kate Winslet is Tilly who returns home to look after her ailing mother (and town outcast) "mad" Molly Â… but she's also returned home to discover the truth of why she was sent away as a child. The town of Dungatar is sure that Tilly murdered a boy, and Tilly is half-convinced of the rumor too, and sure it's why she's now cursed. But she also knows that Dungatar never had any love for her and Molly growing up, and if she wants to get close to the truth she'll have to use everything in her arsenal to pry it out of them.

Tilly's arsenal happens to be fashion. Haute-couture, to be more precise. Since running away from a Melbourne boarding school as a girl, she traveled from London to Milan and Paris, studying under the greats (Balenciaga!) and when she returns to Dungatar she's a veritable fashion powerhouse – using her Singer sewing machine to create Dior-inspired and Tilly-originals to coax the vile women of Dungatar into a false sense of individuality and specialness …

The cast in this film is fantastic. Kate Winslet and Judy Davis clearly have a ball playing contentious mother/daughter pair Tilly and Molly, and there's a beautiful balance of the absurd and heartbreaking between them. Liam Hemsworth as one of the few kind Dungatar townspeople who pursues Tilly romantically, despite her dire warnings of a curse, is at his charming best here – the role of Teddy McSwiney isn't much of a stretch for him, but it's lovely to see and hear a Hemsworth in a little Aussie role that suits him to a tee (and, look, at school my fellow classmates were dead-set on the likes of Beau Brady from 'Home and Away' playing Teddy so – Liam's wonderful!).

The film is choc-a-block with Aussie stars playing dastardly villains or defeated characters in the town of Dungatar – Shane Jacobson, Barry Otto, Shane Bourne and Alison Whyte among them. Some of these minor roles clearly got a bit jumbled in the editing; there's a wayward flirtation between Rebecca Gibney and a shop-keep that just sort of goes nowhere … but then there's Hugo Weaving as the

The Dressmaker fmovies. Well, that has to be the most conflicting movie experience I've ever known. I was invited to the premiere of The Dressmaker last night and I'm unsure whether I can say I loved it, hated it, thought it was hilarious, found it terribly sad, was frustrated because it was so weird or enjoyed it because some of the characters were so endearing - this movie caused all of these emotions and more. It's certainly entertaining - just so many roller-coaster sensations within the space of only a few minutes. A viewer will fluctuate continually between laughing raucously one minute only to find themselves experiencing deep sadness, anger, confusion or just plain asking yourself 'Why did they include this?' with the next breath. And they're a mix of the most quirky / weird / unlikeable / endearing / heartwarming characters I've ever seen / met. There was one character I didn't like at all, even though at some stages I still found myself laughing at some of their antics. I'm sure many readers will either disagree with me or think I'm referring to someone else - but that's okay, that's what makes us all different. The Dressmaker is definitely worth a look but not something I'd pay to see again - mainly because of the inclusion of that one character already referred to. This movie is very very dark in places and the ending is definitely not what you expect! The dialogue flurries and stubborn, though endearing, rapport constantly firing between Kate Winslet and Judy Davies are exceptional and certainly to be applauded. A very big hats off to Kate for a wonderful portrayal of an Aussie accent - you would swear she is a true blue Aussie. I have never heard anyone who wasn't born here to pull off an Aussie accent with such authenticity as she showed in this. Proves her calibre as an actress and the exceptional talent of Victoria Mielewska, her dialogue coach. Added to all of this, the budget must have been huge as every single person involved was easily recognisable from another movie or TV series - and most of them big Aussie names. So don't bother asking me whether you should go and see it - you'll just have to go along and see for yourself - but I can almost guarantee it's definitely not at all what you'll be expecting. And interestingly, other ladies in two book clubs I am connected to said they felt exactly the same with both the book and the film.

Banished from a remote and sparsely populated Australian town when she was ten, Tilly (Kate Winslet) returns many years later. Fresh from conquering the fashion world in Paris, Tilly's form fitting red dress turns heads immediately. Some say Tilly committed a horrible crime and was cursed for it. Tilly has come in order to better learn the truth about what really happened and to set things right. There are many things on her mind including determining her own guilt in the matter, her mother Molly who appears to be mad, lifting the curse, finding love and revenge, among other things.

Battle lines form. Many want Tilly to be guilty and cursed. They work to get her seen in the worst light. The haters may even include Tilly's mother Molly. Yet there are many who believe in Tilly. As she sets up a dress making shop and helps create new and better characters for people, her allies grow. The dresses she makes change how people see themselves and how others view them. It may not be Tilly who is cursed, rather it might be the town for the judgments that they heaped upon a girl.

At the heart of this wonderful film is the theme of how a few awful people make life so bad for others by their terrible and swift judgments. The film is set in the 1950s and is both serious and funny. P.J. Hogan is one of the best screenwriters. His stories are complex and full of amazing twists & turns. His insight into human nature, especially female characters, is spot-on. Added to the spell-binding writing is superb acting by Kate Winslet, Hugo Weaving and the others, the always intriguing back-drop of Australia, compelling themes and characters, and superb directing and organization. Of the 32 films I saw at the Toronto International Film Festival this year, this was the best.

This movie is like a patchwork, little by little you get the whole picture, a really fine piece of work, Kate Winslet is great, Judy Davis simply brilliant, not to mention Hugo Weaving's performance, outstanding, I enjoyed every minute, never underestimate a woman, revenge is a dish best served cold, well in this particular case, sewed, you don't get it at the beginning, why is she dressed like this and what is she doing in such a forsaken place, not wanted at all, starting by her mother, than the battle begins, with a sewing machine (a Singer), determination and a lot of talent, a few golf club's, and the whole place is headlong, word for word, fasten your seat belt, this is going to be one kind of a ride