Review of 'The Dressmaker'

From the stable of quirky, set in small town Australia with lots of dark secrets and petty jealousies. Kate Winslett very good as the eponyomous young woman dressmaker returning to look after her aged and dementing mother, who re-enters into the life of the town by making stunning dresses for the women (several of them former enemies). Funny how they are transformed in every respect when they put on the dresses - they have better make-up, hair, complexions and walk as well as the outfits themselves. But it's only a movie.

I was slightly puzzled by the abrupt changes of tone and mood in the film. It starts out as a 'dark comedy', swaps into romcom territory as Kate's character gets the guy, then suddenly it's melodrama, and then we're back with dark comedy again only it's very dark, with a climax involving multiple murders. Mind you, I did sort of experience Hamlet as a comedy because I only saw it after I saw 'Rosencrantz and Guildernstern are dead', so I found the corpse-strewn ending funny in a way that few others watching did.

Anyway, this is good, and worth watching for the outfits alone.

Surprisingly watched on live TV - Film4.