THE DRESSMAKER (Jocelyn Moorhouse). 101 minutes. Opens Friday (September 23). See listing. Rating: NN
Kate Winslet’s Tilly is an haute couture designer who returns to her tiny, dusty Australian hometown, bringing some style to its country bumpkin women while mending some old traumas.
One character warns Tilly, “You’re wasted here.” Somebody should have said the same thing to Winslet, whose magnetism can hold the screen even when we’re not buying into her character or the people yanking at her satin sleeves.
The cast often rises above this tonally bonkers fable in which dark comedy wraps around melodrama and then slashes its way to a noirish revenge. It’s a genre triathlon, a gambit that would be adventurous if the jokes weren’t so pathetic, the pathos unearned and the suspense completely neutered.
At least there are some elegant looks. Director Jocelyn Moorhouse’s compositions seem inspired by both Sergio Leone and Christian Dior. If only we could have seen them in a magazine spread instead.
