The Dressmaker
Dir: Jocelyn Moorhouse
2015
***

Based on Rosalie Ham’s 2000 novel, Jocelyn Moorhouse’s adaptation was fifteen years in the making with Ham writing a treatment herself. After initial attempts failed, Sue Maslin bought the rights to the novel and hired Moorhouse to direct. While missing out on the rights to begin with, producer Sue Maslin reconnected with the author whom she hadn't seen for 30 years since they were at boarding school together. After the initial project was shelved, Maslin optioned the rights of the novel in 2009 and brought Moorhouse on board to direct and write the screenplay for the film. Maslin said, "She (Moorhouse) was living in Los Angeles and I flew there twice to talk to her about coming back to Australia to make the film. It goes back to what she did with Proof, where every scene was on a knife edge between comedy and tragedy. You don`t know whether to laugh or cry.” Moorhouse came on board for the project, saying, "I've waited years to make this movie. It's about my favourite subjects: revenge, love and creativity. I'm deeply grateful to have such extraordinary actors working on this with me.” Moorhouse's husband, film director P. J. Hogan, served as the script editor for the project. The story takes place in 1926 in the Australian outback town of Dungatar. Twenty-five years after she was banished, Myrtle, now an accomplished dressmaker and going by the name Tilly (Kate Winslet), returns to her hometown to find her house squalid and her mother Molly (Judy Davis) mentally ill. Myrtle was exiled from the town by local police sergeant Horatio Farrat (Hugo Weaving) after she was blamed for the death of schoolboy Stewart Pettyman. Unable to remember the events of Stewart's death, Tilly has returned to ask her mother, as she believes that day has left her cursed. However, Molly remembers nothing about the incident and barely remembers her own daughter. At the local football final game, Tilly turns up in a bright red couture gown that distracts the Dungatar players. During the interval, Teddy McSwiney (Liam Hemsworth) confronts Tilly about her distracting dress, and Tilly agrees to change. After changing into a black but equally alluring outfit, the last quarter of the game begins, with the teams having swapped ends of the field. Due to this, the team from the nearby town of Winyerp are distracted by Tilly's dress, and Dungatar emerges as the winner. Later, Gertrude Pratt (Sarah Snook), the daughter of the owners of the town's general store, arrives at Molly's house to take up Tilly's offer to make her a dress for the upcoming footballers dance. Tilly agrees to make the dress in exchange for the truth about Stewart Pettyman's death. Gertrude reveals that Tilly had hidden from Stewart who had been bullying her, but she revealed Tilly's location in self-defence. At the dance, Gertrude's dress is a huge success, and she uses it to capture the attention of William Beaumont (James Mackay). They later become engaged. All of the townspeople begin asking Tilly for extravagant dresses and Teddy pursues a romantic relationship with her. Sergeant Farrat confesses to Tilly that he exiled her because Stewart's father and town councillor, Evan Pettyman (Shane Bourne), blackmailed him with photographic proof that he is secretly a cross-dresser. Tilly and Farrat form a friendship over their shared passion for designer clothing. Noticing Tilly is regaining the favour of the townspeople, Councillor Pettyman recruits dressmaker Una Pleasance (Sacha Horler) to start a rival dressmaking service. This is initially successful, but when Gertrude hires Tilly to create her wedding dress, the rest of the townspeople return to Tilly, ruining Una. Tilly bribes Farrat with a feather boa into letting her read her former schoolteacher Beulah Harridiene's (Kerry Fox) witness statement from the day Stewart Pettyman died. She becomes convinced Beulah lied in her statement for fear Evan would blame her for Stewart's death. Tilly tells Farrat this at Gertrude's wedding reception, but he remains convinced that Tilly killed Stewart, as everyone else in town had an alibi. He also reveals that Pettyman is Tilly's father. Tilly runs from the reception. Teddy chases after her after his learning disabled brother, Barney (Gyton Grantley), hysterically says Tilly "moved" when Stewart died. Teddy takes Tilly to the schoolhouse, and tells her how Stewart died. Stewart had subdued her against a wall, threatening to murder her mother if she moved. He charged head-down at her, she moved aside at the last moment, and Stewart hit his head on the wall and broke his neck. Barney witnessed this from atop the town silo, but was afraid people would think he was lying. Tilly and Teddy go to his caravan and have sex. Later, they sit on top of the town silo. Teddy shows off by jumping into the silo as we had seen him do before with his friends. Unbeknownst to them the silo’s contents had been swapped with sorghum, and Teddy asphyxiates as he sinks into the grain. Molly tells Tilly Evan knew about Tilly but never came by as she wasn't a son, and when Stewart died he had Tilly sent away to hurt Molly. She encourages her to use her dressmaking talents against the townspeople. While out in town, Molly suffers a stroke, and later dies. While Tilly and Farrat are holding a wake for Molly, Beulah snoops around the house. Tilly drunkenly objects to the music, and throws the portable record player off the veranda, where it hits Beulah and injures her. Beulah is helped onto a train to Melbourne, ostensibly for treatment but really to be placed in an asylum. Percival Almanac (Barry Otto), the town chemist who mistreated Tilly as a child, drowns in a pond at the back of his house. Almanac's wife Irma (Julia Blake) did not save him due to being under the influence of hash brownies baked by Molly. To prevent Tilly's arrest, Sergeant Farrat takes the blame and he is soon removed from the town by his superiors dressed as a Spanish Torero. Tilly visits Marigold and reveals that her husband has been conducting numerous extramarital affairs. Marigold confronts her husband about his unfaithfulness, and subsequently cuts through his Achilles tendons and leaves him to bleed to death. The remaining townspeople travel to Winyerp to perform in a competitive Eisteddfod. Once there, they discover that due to the numerous deaths they lack a full cast, and that Tilly has designed and sewn the costumes for Winyerp's performance. While the townspeople are away, Tilly sets fire to her house and to a bolt of red fabric soaked in kerosene that is rolled out down the hill towards the town. Tilly states that she is no longer cursed, and leaves the town by train. The townspeople return to find that the town has burned down. Moorhouse described the film as “Unforgiven with a sewing machine” and she’s pretty much on the money with her description. However, there is a real quirkiness to the film that sets it apart from most westerns, a quirkiness that doesn’t always work. The film started off brilliantly, with Winslet’s femme fatale character arriving in glamorous attire in the small dusty town – red lipstick and a smoking cigarette in hand as she utters “I’m back you bastards” in a thick Australian accent. The ambiguous identity of this mysterious women is intriguing until her story unravels at a disjointed pace. It soon descends into a sub-standard comedy, before getting dark and then over-complicated. I’m guessing it works in the novel but in the film it feels as if there are three endings and they couldn’t decide which one to go with. Kate Winslet and Judy Davis are both superb but both are slightly let down by the messy second half and the eventual tone that doesn’t seem to know whether it’s a comedy, drama or dark mystery. A film can of course be all three but The Dressmaker is unconvincing as either one. However, it is just about quirky enough to get away with it and it is never predictable. The lead performances are great and it had a certain charm about it. It’s shouldn’t have worked, but it somehow does.