Review of The Dressmaker (2015) by Richard D — 04 Oct 2016

I have enjoyed Australian movies since Babe, one of my favorite movies of all time. This is Kate Winslet's showcase, and she does a fine job. The portrait of a small rural town full of bigots and simmering hatreds is funny, romantic and well acted by the whole cast.

Judy Davis, who looks like she's been homeless for thirty years, is excellent. The barren landscape of Australia looks uninviting at best. The center of the plot is the question of who killed whom many years ago, and there is a fine twist at the end which will surprise you.

Kate looks impossibly gorgeous, making the female envy of her beauty make perfect sense: the entire town, the women anyway, would do absolutely anything to bring her down about a hundred pegs, and they do.

Kate's love interest is one of the handsomest men I have ever seen, with startling blue eyes and a body to die for. Literally. The Australian sensibility (oversimplifying, of course) informs the movie throughout: this movie could never be made in the US.

More's the pity. Go see it. You will be entertained on several levels. I enjoyed it a lot, and would highly recommend it for moviegoers who are throwing up at the latest Hollywood horsepuck.