The Dressmaker (2015)

Jack and I loved this movie--part slapstick, part revenge, part romance, part tragedy--of a 1950s couture dress designer returning to the rural Australian village where she was hated as a child by the eccentric townspeople. Kate Winslet (last blogged for Steve Jobs) is marvelous in the title role and in those luscious costumes. Who better than Judy Davis (most recently in To Rome with Love) to play her mad mother? Then we have the equally luscious beefcake Liam Hemsworth (I didn't see a single Hunger Games nor any of his other credits) as the love interest and the fascinating Hugo Weaving (I saw only the first Matrix and some of the Lord of the Ringses but do remember him being scary in V is for Vendetta (2005) and Captain America: The First Avenger) playing against type as a cross dressing cop.

Jocelyn Moorhouse (directed How to Make an American Quilt (1995) and three others) runs the show with a slightly unsteady hand--at times I wondered why she kept changing genres, but it's all so entertaining I stopped caring. She and her husband P.J. Hogan (wrote and directed Muriel's Wedding (1994) and Peter Pan (2003), and wrote a few more scripts) adapted the Rosalie Ham novel which must be a humdinger considering the crazy plot twists.

This movie is a visual feast, thanks to cinematographer Donald McAlpine (Oscar-nominated for Moulin Rouge! (2001), also shot My Brilliant Career (1979), Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986), Parenthood (1989), Stanley & Iris (1990), Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), Romeo + Juliet (1996), The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005), and many more), production designer Roger Ford (some of his notable work includes Sirens (1993), Babe (1995), Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002), The Quiet American (2002), Peter Pan (2003), and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005)) and costume designers Marion Boyce (nothing I've seen) and Margot Wilson (Bran Nue Dae), the latter of whom designed Winslet's glamorous duds.

Tracks from the original soundtrack by David Hirschfelder can be found on youtube, such as this and that. He blends western themes with classical, opera, and some pop hits of the time.

Everyone in the main cast and crew is either from Australia or New Zealand or lived or worked there (Winslet is English but her first movie, Heavenly Creatures (1994), was directed by Peter Jackson and shot in New Zealand).

Sadly, most critics on Rotten Tomatoes couldn't get past the genre-bending and are averaging only 54% and its audiences are only slightly warmer at 70, but we highly recommend this. See it on the big screen.