The Dressmaker is a revenge story and a love story all wrapped up in one. It has a tragic ending, so prepare yourself. Grab those tissues. You’re going to need them.
The film begins with a beautiful woman getting off a ramshackle bus in the middle of nowhere Australia. It’s 1951 and she’s wearing haute couture from Paris where she’s been apprenticing to the major dress designers. She’s just arrived in Dungatar which has a population of about forty people. Forty very arrogant, very selfish, very judgmental people. As she sets about winning over the townspeople with her fashion, we learn about her past. Her name is Tilly Dunnage and she was taken from her home when she was 10 years old, accused of murdering the son, Teddy, of the local councilman, Evan Pettyman.
Everyone in town has their secrets, but Evan Pettyman has the biggest secret of all. Every night he drugs his wife and rapes her. And this isn’t the first time he’s raped someone. He raped Tilly’s mother and that’s how Tilly came to be.
Along the way, Tilly falls in love with an old flame who meets a tragic end in a local sport called silo diving. 🙁
7 out of 10 stars.
I loved the revenge part, but the love story had such a tragic ending I wish they had left it out completely.
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