The Dressmaker 2015

      This film is based on a best selling novel by Rosalie Ham.  Tilly Dunnage returns in 1951 to her small town in rural Australia.  She's brought her sewing machine and her style with her.  She has come to see her mother and she hasn't seen her for a long time.  Tilly wants to right the wrongs of the past.  The town has always thought she killed a young boy who went to school with her and lived in the town.  Tilly's mother is doing fine for the shape she is in!!  She drinks a lot and she doesn't clean, both her home and herself.  Tilly starts right in with giving her mother a bath and then cleaning the house.  The townspeople don't want to accept her until they learn something very different and interesting about her?

    Tilly knows how to sew and she spent time in France.  She takes one of the plainest women in the town and she makes a gown for her.  This woman goes to a dance and everyone is amazed by how beautiful she looks.  Now, the women of the town want to have clothes made by Tilly to make them over!!  Tilly learns a lot about herself and her childhood.  She finds out she didn't kill the boy.

     This film is best for older teens and adults.  There is some intense material about murder, mental illness and bullying.  Plenty of smoking, drinking, some kissing, sexual situations and swearing.  Some upsetting scenes are shown or discussed.  The dressmaker herself demonstrates perseverance against all odds.  5* (I really liked this movie)   

119 min Drama directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse and written by Rosalie Ham, Jocelyn Moorhouse and P.J. Hogan with Kate Winslet, Judy Davis, Liam Hemsworth, Hugo Weaving, Julia Blake, Shane Bourne, Kerry Fox, Rebecca Gibney, Caroline Goodall, Gyton Grantley, Tracy Harvey, Sacha Horler, Shane Jacobson, Genevieve Lemon, James Mackay, Hayley Magnus, Simon Maiden, Barry Otto.

Note:  Imdb 7.1* out of 10* with 51,997 reviews, Roger Ebert 2 1/2* Susan Wloszczyna, Rotten Tomatoes 57% with 138 critics 66% with 9,924 reviews, RollingStone 2* out of 4* Peter Travers, The Guardian 3* out of 5* Luke Buckmaster, Common Sense Media, S. Jhoanna Robledo, age 16+, 3* positive, 3* role models, 3* violence, 2* sex, 4* language, 1* consumerism, 3* drinking, drugs, smoking.

Special Note:  Several times the shooting was interrupted as wild emus got involved in the scenes!!  There is a mistake in a scene with Tilly in the classroom with the teacher.  The alphabet on the top of the blackboard is missing the letter R?  Tilly smokes filtered cigarettes and this type of cigarette was not available in Australia in 1951.