Director Jocelyn Moorhouse/2016
A little comedy is brewing up down under and it is definitely worth the price of admission. Based on a novel by Rosalie Ham, The Dressmaker finds Kate Winslet taking on the role of an unconventional femme fettale in an unlikely tale of revenge ala haute couture.
It is the early 1950’s and Myrtle “Tilly” Dunnage (Winslet) arrives back in the small Australian town of Dungatar declaring “I’m back you bastards”, and from that moment on, you’re hooked. Myrtle was sent away as a small child after being accused of murdering one of her classmates, and thinks of herself as cursed as a result of what she is believed to have done. Police chief Sergeant Ferrat, played by the hilarious cross-dressing Hugo Weaving, took her away at the age of 10, and is the first to greet her upon her return.
Tilly heads back home to find her mother, “Mad” Molly (Judy Davis), as a recluse who has let the house go, sharing it with a wild possum who found its way in. She has forgotten her own daughter, and must be reminded over a series of days where she and Winslet’s interactions provide several laughs.
The Dressmaker is one of these rare films that makes you laugh out loud, recoil in horror, hope for greater things, shed a tear, and cheer vicariously for those who deserve to get their comeuppance. It comes from a land down under, but its appeal should be universal.
Tilly is back for revenge, only the details of what happened so long ago aren’t entirely clear. After the “incident”, she was taken away. She spent time at a boarding school in Melbourne, followed by trips to London, Paris, Barcelona, and Milan. She was trained to be a dressmaker, and a very good one too. Tilly’s gift was haute couture, where she would take the measurements of her client, observe their body type, and then custom design a dress that would highlight was what unique about them. After putting on a display at a local rugby game where she catches the attention of Teddy McSwiney (Liam Hemsworth), she soon is getting clients who want the same kind of attention from a dress that she just got.
Her initial client is Gertrude “Trudy” Pratt, the homely daughter of the local general store owners who is pining for a popular young man who just returned from college. Gertrude shows up at the local dance hall and shocks the town in her transformation. Soon the entire town is willing to put aside their wrath for this “murderer” if it means being a part of the latest trend of wearing Tilly’s dresses. Tilly is so professional, yet underneath it all is a contempt that has been brewing for over 20 years. She will have her revenge!
The Dressmaker may suffer from having the single worst trailer of the year. If one were to watch it, they would come away from it having an impression that this film was something that it really isn’t. It is not the light-hearted rom-com that the trailer makes it out to be. This film is hilarious, dark, twisted, heartbreaking, tense, familiar, quirky, dry witted, irreverent, romantic, and tragic. Unfortunately, none of those things seem to find their way into the trailer, and this could drive away a larger audience. For those who stay home, be warned, you are missing a rare find.
Winslet is wonderful in this role, and she slips into the Australian role effortlessly, with a great accent, but more importantly she pulls off the dry and perfectly timed humor that is so much a part of that culture. The real scene stealers of the show are Judy Davis and Hugo Weaving.
If you know Weaving from his larger movies like The Matrix, The Lord of the Rings, Captain America: The First Avenger, or V for Vendetta, then you should prepare yourself for a completely different role. His take on Sergeant Farrat is whimsical and flamboyantly refreshing, especially in a scene where he is giving up police evidence to Tilly under the temptation of being able to wear one of her fancier fabrics. Judy Davis makes you wish she was in every scene, and provides perhaps the most heartfelt performance and complicated character arc of the film.
What was an additional surprise is how well we get to know the townspeople of Dungatar, with all of their petty quirks, jealousy, secrets, and false pleasantries. This is really a town of deplorables, to coin a more recent political phrase, only this time it is not a sweeping stereotype. The town of Dungatar is rotten. The more time that Tilly spends there, the more the truth of the events of her childhood begin to take shape with the audience learning the truth slowly as her romance with Teddy begins to take shape.
Some audiences won’t get the dark humor, and may find the breezy pace interrupted when some tragic events unfold. These do cause the rhythm of the film to be slightly interrupted, but the strong cast and direction hold it together to deliver a rousing revenge-soaked finale to the story.
The Dressmaker is one of these rare films that makes you laugh out loud, recoil in horror, hope for greater things, shed a tear, and cheer vicariously for those who deserve to get their comeuppance. It comes from a land down under, but its appeal should be universal.
