The Dressmaker- Review

Hello, everyone!

Last week I watched "The Dressmaker". Here is my opinion:

"The Dressmaker" is that kind of films that makes you ask why. Why has the production to waste a wonderful actress such as Kate Winslet in a B-movie? Why her love interest, Liam Hemsworth, needs to pretend to be twenty years older? Why the plot is driven by low-level climaxes? I could go on forever.

The film is about revenge. It tells the story of a glamorous woman who returns to her small town in rural Australia. With her sense of fashion, she transforms the women and exacts sweet revenge on those who did her wrong.

"The Dressmaker" has a good premise. Still, it lacks an original evolution of this premise centered on revenge and women. The setting, Australia in the '50s, are anonymous. Yes, the dresses hint that the characters live in the golden age of Chanel, Dior and Balengacia. But, there is not authenticity. I think that the viewers can feel that nothing of what is shown is real. These are '50s clothes made in the 21st century.

The film is based on a novel by Rosalie Ham. I haven't read this book, but I think that both the director and screenwriter, Jocelyn Moorhouse and P.J Hogan,  did a mediocre job in adapting the story for the big screen. Although we all know that melodrama films are based on the excess of emotion narratives and non-sense cliffhangers, the film does not find a balance. For this main reason, I regard it as a failure.

Moreover, I did not appreciate at all the choice of Liam Hemsworth as the love interest. I know what are you thinking: why am I criticising a film where for the first time is the woman to have a younger boyfriend. The answer is very simple: he pretends to have the same age of Kate Winslet. His role in the story is to die to save the damsel in distress. Nothing new under the sun. Probably, the producers just needed a male bare chest to attract a younger audience. 

Overall, the film is enjoyable. But it has not depth. It is a pointless journey of fake emotions in the desolate lands of Australian in the '50s. 

What do you think?

Here is the trailer: