Film
The Dressmaker
A 1950s Australian fable about a dressmaker's return to her small hometown to expose secrets and settle scores. It's visually lush, wickedly funny, and powered by Kate Winslet's magnetic performance—equal parts revenge fantasy and love letter to the transformative power of style. For anyone who loves character-driven stories with bite.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you love a sharp, sun-bleached comedy where a glamorous outsider's stylish revenge carries real emotional weight, and where bold costumes and bitchy one-liners sit comfortably beside a town's buried cruelty.
Skip it if you want a brisk plot that keeps moving, since it lingers on its colourful characters, shifts tone abruptly between broad farce and melancholy, and runs well past what its comic premise really needs.
What it asks of you: It runs just under two hours and rewards patience, letting its sly humour and lush period styling build slowly, while expecting you to hold several tonal shifts without needing them resolved neatly.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
Muriel's Wedding1994
Australian small-town social comedy with heart. Similar blend of humour, fashion, female friendship, and the dream of escaping your origins. Toni Collette is radiant and the abba soundtrack is unforgettable.
But The pacing is deliberately slack in places and some of the humour has dated slightly. It's also genuinely sad beneath the laughs, which can catch you off guard.
The Iron Lady2011
Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher—a similar study of a formidable woman returning to confront her past and transform the world around her through sheer force of will and performance.
But It's more overtly political and considerably less fun. The film splits between present and past in ways some found confusing.
Paper Moon1973
Ryan O'Neal and Tatum O'Neal con their way through Depression-era America. It has that same playful vengeance energy and gorgeous period detail, with costumes and style as character.
But It's in black and white and moves at a deliberately unhurried pace. The con-artist plot is slight, which some find frustrating.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Dressmaker
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes1953
Both centre on women using clothes, beauty, and performance as tools of agency and revenge. Both are gleeful about it.
Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe in 1953—a film about women weaponizing style, desire, and performance to get what they want. It has The Dressmaker's DNA: the transformation of self as a form of power and resistance.
But It's a musical and it plays female sexuality for laughs in ways that feel foreign now. The plot is gossamer-thin and some find it frivolous.
More like this (6)
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert1994
Australian road movie about self-invention and survival. Hugo Weaving stars; the film shares The Dressmaker's love of transformation through costume, colour, and performance as power.
But It's dated in some of its representations and the plot is fairly slight. Some will find it too broad and theatrical.
Far from the Madding Crowd2015
Released the same year, it shares Kate Winslet's intensity and beauty. A period romance with a heroine who refuses to be diminished by circumstance or men's expectations.
But It's far more restrained and literary than The Dressmaker. Some find it slow and emotionally distant.
Singin' in the Rain1952
Golden Age Hollywood musical that understands performance as survival and reinvention. The transformation of Jean Hagen's character echoes Tilly's power to remake those around her through style.
But It's a musical, which isn't for everyone. The gender politics, while of its era, are dated.
Atonement2007
Keira Knightley in a lush period drama about secrets, class, and devastating consequences. It shares The Dressmaker's visual beauty and its fascination with how small acts reverberate through small communities.
But It's emotionally heavy and turns tragic. The narrative structure is deliberately tricky in ways some find gimmicky.
Arrival2016
Both use a form of language—dress, or an alien tongue—as the vehicle for understanding, forgiveness, and the remaking of relationships and communities.
A science-fiction film that explores communication and understanding through visual and linguistic transformation. It has The Dressmaker's quiet conviction that changing how someone sees the world changes everything.
But It's meditative and cerebral rather than dramatic. Some found the ending unsatisfying and the sci-fi framework off-putting.
Carol2015
Both are 1950s period pieces about women transforming their worlds through style and desire. Both understand that beauty and fashion can be acts of defiance.
Todd Haynes' 1950s romance, also released in 2015. It shares The Dressmaker's lush visual palette and obsession with how desire, style, and class function in small communities. Cate Blanchett is magnetic.
But It's a quiet, elegiac film. Some find the pacing glacial and the restraint depressing rather than poignant.
People
Cast
Kate WinsletMyrtle "Tilly" Dunnage
Liam HemsworthTeddy McSwiney
Caroline GoodallElsbeth Beaumont
Judy DavisMolly Dunnage
Hayley MagnusPrudence
Hugo WeavingSergeant Farrat
Sarah SnookGertrude "Trudy" Pratt
Kerry FoxBeulah Harridiene
Shane JacobsonAlvin Pratt
Rebecca GibneyMuriel Pratt
James MackayWilliam Beaumont
Gyton GrantleyBarney McSwiney
Directing
- Jocelyn MoorhouseDirector
- Susie StruthScript Supervisor
Writing
- Rosalie HamNovel
- Jocelyn MoorhouseScreenplay
- P.J. HoganScreenplay
Production
- Christine KingCasting
- Amanda MitchellCasting Associate
- Cinzia CoassinCasting Associate
- P.J. HoganExecutive Producer
- Sue MaslinProducer