Review: The Dressmaker

The poster of the movie.
The poster of the movie.

Director: Jocelyn Moorhouse

Runtime: 1h58m

Rating: ★★★★ 4/5

No matter the first scene of Tilly’s (Kate Winslet) leather heels stepped on the dusty ground or the final close-up of her eyes before she lighted the fire up the the house, we need to admire that the director, Jocelyn Moorhouse, did a great job at details. The dresses in the movie are also gorgeous. It is one advantage that having a female director because sometimes they just know how to show the beauty of women better than man.

It is usually hard for movies which are recomposed by novels to get compliments. Audiences who are familiar with the original story can be really picky sometimes: whether the actors suit the characters, did they change the story too much or even whether the actor should say that words in that tone.

Kate and Liam in the movie.
Kate and Liam in the movie.

But I think people also need to realize that movie is another way of presenting a store, it got to be different. In The Dressmaker, it makes those dresses alive and shows you how beautiful a woman can be with a suitable outfit. At this moment you may still immerse in the sadness of Molly’s (Judy Davis) death, but next scene you may also burst out laughing because you see Sergeant (Hugo Weaving) wearing exaggerated Matador cloth. These are what books can not show you but movie can.

Other reviews are keen to regard this movie as “a batty, fancy-frocked revenge story”. However, if you put the original work away and only focus on the movie itself, it is a successful black comedy. Rather than revenge, you may find that The Dressmaker is more about renascence if you watch the movie without reading the novel before. The fire she lighted was not just revenge, it’s awaken.

It has all elements that are needed to make you laugh, cry or laugh with tears at the same time. Besides, Liam Hemsworth is pretty hot in the movie. You can hardly recognize that he is also the same actor in The Hunger Game. For me, that already worth the money I paid.