First Take: The Dressmaker- a review nearly a year in the making

SYPNOSIS:

A glamorous woman returns to her small town in rural Australia. With her sewing machine and haute couture style, she transforms the women and exacts sweet revenge on those who did her wrong.

It’s indie time once again. Now, for a little bit of context- this was originally intended for review back in November of last year, but as a little thing called Spectre happened, I couldn’t track down a single screening at my local cinema. I now understand why- only a select few could really click with this film, and unfortunately I wasn’t one of them.

The script is good, adapted from a novel by Rosalie Ham, however it fails to keep a cohesive audience engagement for its near 2 hour running time, however, the dialogue is very well written, and I am always a sucker for some fine dialogue. The performances are exactly what you’d expect from a cast as fine as Kate Winslet, Judy Davis and Liam Hemsworth- very well rounded and believable, with Hemsworth putting in some great work during his scenes. The direction from Jocelyn Moorhouse is OK, with some pacing issues taking their toll in the second act of the film, making it difficult to watch, however for fans of the revenge drama, this is a very well thought out film.

THE VERDICT

While it has all the makings of an indie classic, The Dressmaker just wasn’t the right fit for a mass audience on its initial cinema release (similar films like Brooklyn would eventually outperform this), however, even with the few minor glitches with the direction, it will find an audience somewhere now that it has been released on home video and streaming services.

RATING- 3.5/5