Watch The Dressmaker For Free

one of my absolute favorites!

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

I watched this movie at home as an Amazon streaming offer. I am a Winslet fan, I like everything she does and she is great here.Kate Winslet is adult Tilly Dunnage, returning to her tiny and dusty Australian town after being away for 25 years. In that time she had traveled the world, became an expert dressmaker in Paris, and upon return was the most refined woman in her community.But what happened 25 years ago when she was 10? Local legend has it she had murdered someone, a 10-yr-old classmate, and for that she was sent away. But she didn't have any recollection of that and part of her mission was to find out what really happened.There are lots of good scenes in this movie but there are also a few goofy ones. There are some strange characters, and some of the "normal" characters do some strange things. Like the cross-dressing chief of police or the young men who jump into a grain silo full of mice in the middle of the night.But quirkiness aside the meat of the story, and Tilly's uncovering and remembering what really happened, makes it a worthwhile viewing.

The Aussie Outback is one of those lonesome frontiers, like the Arctic and the Southern American swampland, that we don't really see much in American cinema. We've had a few "Max Max" adventures and that 2008 film from Baz Luhrmann, but for the most part, its exploration is limited to indie films and foreign productions. And it's usually earnest and expansive, like "The Rover" taking on the wild Western genre, or it's scary and mined for horror, like in "Kangaroo Jack" -- wait, what was I talking about?"The Dressmaker" drives Kate Winslet's titular seamstress Tilly out to the middle of nowhere, her way-out-back hometown where some unspeakable horror has occurred years ago. And supposedly, she's the perpetrator, though she doesn't remember. Neither does her senile, lunatic mother Molly (Judy Davis), who rambles about possums and presumably hasn't had a bath in years.There's weirdness afoot in town as well, where every character, from Hugo Weaving's delightful cross-dressing police sergeant to the hunchbacked chemist (mind you, it's the '20s), feels like a "Twin Peaks" small-town oddity on steroids.This is all helped along by the screwball execution of a rather dark story. Reminiscent of a Tim Burton film, there's slapstick antics and clever visual gags that shove a rocket up the ass of a considerably more somber tale of clearing one's innocence and seeking vengeance on some silly town gossips. Who says we can't have fun while we're exploring one woman's dark past?Well, the script, for one. Sometimes the story gets a little too deathly for its own good, and while writer/director Jocelyn Moorhouse knows when to slow down and let these moments breathe, much of the third act decides the film has been twiddling its thumbs for too long (it hasn't) and rushes forward with many shocking developments and hurried character beats.But what a strong first two acts! Moorhouse has a knack for zany scene construction, and the montages, arguments and introductions all bear the beautiful feeling of brevity. Tilly takes up the local trailer hunk (Liam Hemsworth) on his offer for a date. Fifteen seconds, tops. Tilly momentarily decides to give up dressmaking for good. Two minutes, in and out. Bam. Done. And while sometimes, this hampers the overall flow of the film, it sets up an exuberant tone out of the gate.The problems come with tone, and with how that energy can be kept up throughout the entire film. Moorhouse commits, thank goodness, to the wackiness, and she dials the Burtonosity of it all up to 11 for some inspired scenes on top of a silo at night, in a ostensibly innocent kitchen, or in a bride-to-be's frantic rush to Tilly's doorstep.The central relationships of Tilly with the hunky Hemsworth brother (sorry, was there more to his character that I was missing?) and with her mother are given ample attention, and we feel the weight they have in Tilly's life. Winslet's soulful performance cuts through her anxiety and fear with her smiles and her tenacity, which brighten up the first act and keep the fantastical, folksy machinations of the story as grounded as possible.But unlike Burton, Moorhouse knows when to pull in the reins. Her story is by no means "Edward Scissorhands," though she tells it as if it were. "The Dressmaker" is as enamored with its endearing strangeness as it is with its characters and their history. Gorgeous shots of sunset over the Outback are given as much care and focus as the dresses Tilly crafts for the townspeople.The story itself, though, tends to divert its focus from where we want it most to be. The more fun townsfolk drop out of the story around the sagging middle of the film, and there's a sizable portion thereabouts where "The Dressmaker" suddenly doesn't have anything to do with Winslet's making dresses.But it's nothing Moorhouse doesn't try to overcome by indulging in her bizarre characters and screenplay. This isn't a bad thing at all, especially if, like me, you feel as if Hugo Weaving gets far too many serious roles and needs a good scene or two where he orgasmically heaves over fine fabric.

I'm saying "3" because Kate Winslet is always excellent. I like to watch her on the screen just to watch HER. For the first 30-40 minutes, I WAS intrigued and wanted to see what was going to happen. Well, I found out what happens: NOTHING.This is one of the worst directed things I have ever seen. And that is saying a LOT. I'm the one who doesn't give up, stealthily soldiering on when the faint-hearted give up! Hey, I made it to the end of Birdman!!I might... MIGHT... watch the last 10 minutes at some juncture so I can see if anything really does happen. Then again, I might stick a red hot poker up my nose.That is all.

...but in the case of Tilly Dunnage (Kate Winslet) a few things need to be straightened out.Thus, the stunning Tilly returns to her home in Dungatar, Australia, back to her alcoholic mother (Judy Davis) who acts like she doesn't remember her and is thought of as the town slut, and back to a town that considers Tilly herself a murderer. Tilly cleans her mother's house and throws the woman in a tub, and then tries to find out what happened fifteen years ago that caused her to be sent away. It is believed by the town that she killed Stewart Pettyman when they were both children. Why can't she remember it?Now a designer in Paris, Tilly soon attracts a clientele of local women who love her chic designs. She also attracts Teddy McSwiney (Liam Hemsworth), the town hunk.Slowly, Tilly finds out the town's secrets, which include a cross- dressing sheriff (Hugo Weaving). He's the least of it.This is a story of redemption and revenge, deliciously told by director Jocelyn Moorhouse and her dynamite cast. Everyone, including the town's old biddies, are wonderful. Sarah Snook, as the impossibly homely Trudy, gets one of the all-time makeovers and is a sight to behold.A few cultural references that weren't quite right: The film appears to take place in 1950 - Tilly, Teddy, and her mother Molly go to see Sunset Boulevard. However, they listen to the soundtrack of South Pacific from 1958 and OKlahoma from 1955. So when the film takes place is anybody's guess - I didn't read the book.All in all, a mixture of dark comedy and drama that is ultimately satisfying. Tilly proves that revenge is a dish best served cold, even in Australia's hot climate.