Based on the novel by Rosalie Ham, “The Dressmaker” is the best Australian film I’ve seen in years! Set in a tiny town called Dungatar, Victoria, the film opens with a fabulously fashionable Kate Winslet stepping off a dusty bus in the middle of nowhere.

Myrtle “Tilly” Dunnage was an awkward child who was bullied and tormented at her tiny state school. She is banished to Melbourne at a young age, accused of murdering a boy, but she has no recollection of the incident. She comes back to town to learn the truth about her childhood, desperate to be accepted by the community.

She changes their lives with her beautiful designs and flawless dressmaking, and seems to have won them over, but at the heart of the town is an awfulness that cannot be expunged.

Judy Davis was great as Tilly’s mother, Mad Molly, Hugo Weaving is delightful and Liam Hemsworth is lovely as Teddy!

A great story, terrific acting and superb cast make this a thoroughly enjoyable revenge film. Highly recommended.

8.5/10