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Critics Consensus: The Dressmaker boasts a strong central performance by Kate Winslet and a captivating array of narrative weirdness -- all of which may or may not be a comfortable fit with viewers.
Critic Consensus: The Dressmaker boasts a strong central performance by Kate Winslet and a captivating array of narrative weirdness -- all of which may or may not be a comfortable fit with viewers.
All Critics (128) | Top Critics (23) | Fresh (70) | Rotten (58)
There's plenty to admire here, especially if your taste is tailored to the unusual.
Whatever were they smoking?
Kate Winslet can do anything ... except save this movie from quirky overkill.
The film has so many moodswings that watching it induces whiplash, and just about everybody in it, from Winslet on down to Judy Davis, playing the dressmaker's crotchety mother, flagrantly overdoes it.
The second Winslet sets her sewing machine on the ground and snarls, "I'm back, you bastards," we're delighted to hear we're in for something fun.
Positively explodes with a surfeit of pent-up creative energy that unfortunately doesn't know when to stop.
You can't accuse The Dressmaker of putting style over substance because it has both in spades.
The Dressmaker wagers that its audience might only get out to see one film in theaters this year, so it should cram all the genres they love into its two-hour runtime.
While I wish the story could have been a bit more balanced, "The Dressmaker" boasts great performances by all involved and cashes in on its silly, and occasionally dark, humor.
The best thing about The Dressmaker is, of course, Kate Winslet. The plot is over-complicated and includes a wedding, a funeral, an ambitious death count, drugs and alcohol, dueling dressmakers, and a grand finale theatrical extravaganza.
Gives ample room for the talents of the wonderful Judy Davis.
I loved the idea -- and indeed its stunning visualisation... but that's not enough to sustain a film that is criminally overlong and wastes several opportunities to come to a close. Winslet, however, is fab.
Could have gone either way with this one, but glad I stuck with it. Very original, and I loved all the beautiful dresses.
Super Reviewer
Unclear about what it wants to be, Dressmaker wavers thematically between wronged-youth-returns-to-better-backward-town redemptive or the ever popular let's-get-the-mongoloids-that-got-us revenge classic (always a popular favorite). It's these jarring shifts in perspective that make the piece hard to accept and one feels a touch manic by the ending. Before that though there are pieces that threaten beauty ... were they left alone.
This was exceedingly surprising and turned out to be a great film. A typical mother-daughter revenge story that is both bittersweet and funny, often very funny at times. Definitely better than I thought it would be in terms of Australian films but when it is written by Paul 'Crocodile Dundee' Hogan you know it will be better than most.
I watched what could be considered some very strange films at the Toronto International Film Festival, but I don't think any of them were as weird or out there as Jocelyn Moorhouse's The Dressmaker. This movie, you guys, is completely bonkers. You wouldn't think so given the look of the header photo above and the fact it stars such credible and well-respected actors as Kate Winslet, Hugo Weaving and Judy Davis, but once this thing gets rolling it is both surprising and distracting as to how ridiculous it gets. As I watched the events of the film unfold I couldn't help but to keep writing down again and again how I couldn't believe they were going where they were going and yet, the film kept going...one step further. Now, to be clear, this isn't strange or ridiculous in the sense of bombastic violence or discussing things typically taboo for everyday discussion, but more in the sense of general absurdities. Having not directed a film in nearly twenty years and operating strictly in Australia this would seem to be a fine opportunity to return for Moorhouse and there is plenty of stuff to have fun with here despite the fact I wasn't able to get on board with all of it. With Winslet leading the charge (though she seems slightly miscast) Moorhouse and her ensemble of misfits that make up this small town in Australia endeavor to deliver a perfectly cheeky little screwball comedy that is able to hold a slight amount of substance rather than being completely flippant. read the whole review at www.reviewsfromabed.com
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