You never met the rubbish
The Dressmaker
What a film! Love, loss, childhood, bullying, coming of age, revenge, family relationships and secrets all done in an immersive way that has the viewer both empathising and critiquing the protagonist all at once.
After the opening credits running through a few important scenes from childhood the story opens with a woman, Tilly, (Kate Winslet) turning up at a town with her sewing machine. She is immaculately dressed and we are left wondering what such a chic fashionista is doing in a backwater tiny Australian village. The opening words “I’m back, you bastards” lays open the tone for the rest of the film.
The top layer of the story is a woman coming home to the village she was born in to find out whether she committed a murder. Tilly’s mother, Molly, has started to develop dementia and one or two of the residents have been helping her with food etc but an awful lot of the villagers, who have lived there all of their lives, have left her to suffer alone. Tilly quickly moves into Molly’s house and tries to clean her and care for her, uncovering years of neglect.
Whilst this superficial layer of the story is being laid bare for us, the rippling undercurrents are slowly being uncovered via flashbacks for Tilly. It becomes clear over time that something happened in her youth and the village holds this against her. As she bargains and argues, grappling with herself and others she slowly uncovers what did happen on the fateful day that the villagers say she murdered another child, Stuart Pettiman.
During her time of searching for the truth Tilly builds relationships, first with her mother and slowly with the rest of the population that have shown her or her mother kindness over the years. Each person she connects with reveals another shard of information that is slowly pieced together to unlock Tilly’s own memory of the event. These connections slowly uncover facts about who Tilly is, who her father is and why she has been treated the way she has.
The comedic moments that cement the story together are played excellently, each serious moment punctuated with a quip. Hugo Weaving’s character becomes ever more flamboyant as Tilly becomes ever more distressed. Barney becomes more expressively distraught in a parallel arc with Tilly until he becomes the key to finding the answer.
Of course there is also some gratuitous, almost naked Hemsworth.
The twist before the end is almost unbearably sad but only almost, because they bear it, three strong women of Dungatar. By the end of the film Tilly has us with her every step of the way, commisterating and celebrating, understanding why and silently encouraging her.
The film ends full circle, Tilly arrived in the light of a fire, she left in the light of a fire.
“You never met the rubbish”