The Dressmaker * * *

At times The Dressmaker has a tedious familiarity with those Australian films we have come to know and hate so well. You know, with expository dialogue and laborious flashbacks  and exaggerated accents and self consciousness. But then it also shines with some very funny, crazy, almost surreal,situations.

In the end I found a lot more to like about The Dressmaker than to dislike.  I found it to be a bold and risky film with some very funny and endearing characters.   Especially Judy Davis as a cantankerous old woman and and Hugo Weaving as a cross dressing cop.

Set in 1951, the town they have created looks great.  It is populated with a who’s who of Australian actors with one import Kate Winslet playing the main character, Tilly Dunnage .  She does a fine job.

It’s about a woman that returns to the town that falsely accused of her being cursed. Almost a modern telling of the “She be witch!” stories, where rumours and innuendos grow as a fearful and isolated community seeks to cling together by condemning one of its own.  Though the things that happen around Tilly Dunnage make you wonder if she indeed might have some curse upon her.  

Director Jocelyn Moorhouse made her name years ago with a simple but effective drama called Proof.  Like Proof, The Dressmaker certainly got under my skin.I got a feeling that it’s going to be one of those damn films that I’m going to have to go back and see again in six months: just because it’s so quirky further digestion is required.