A glamorous woman returns to her small town in rural Australia. With her sewing machine and haute couture style, she transforms the women and exacts sweet revenge on those who did her wrong.
Post-WWII Germany: Nearly a decade after his affair with an older woman came to a mysterious end, law student Michael Berg re-encounters his former lover as she defends herself in a war-crime trial.
Depressed single mom Adele and her son Henry offer a wounded, fearsome man a ride. As police search town for the escaped convict, the mother and son gradually learn his true story as their options become increasingly limited.
Director:
Jason Reitman
Stars:
Kate Winslet,
Josh Brolin,
Gattlin Griffith
Stranded after a tragic plane crash, two strangers must forge a connection to survive the extreme elements of a remote snow-covered mountain. When they realize help is not coming, they embark on a perilous journey across the wilderness.
A young couple living in a Connecticut suburb during the mid-1950s struggle to come to terms with their personal problems while trying to raise their two children.
Director:
Sam Mendes
Stars:
Leonardo DiCaprio,
Kate Winslet,
Christopher Fitzgerald
Retreating from life after a tragedy, a man questions the universe by writing to Love, Time, and Death. Receiving unexpected answers, he begins to see how these things interlock and how even loss can reveal moments of meaning and beauty.
The lives of two lovelorn spouses from separate marriages, a registered sex offender, and a disgraced ex-police officer intersect as they struggle to resist their vulnerabilities and temptations in suburban Massachusetts.
Director:
Todd Field
Stars:
Kate Winslet,
Jennifer Connelly,
Patrick Wilson
On Coney Island in the 1950s, a lifeguard tells the story of a middle-aged carousel operator, his beleaguered wife, and the visitor who turns their lives upside-down.
Director:
Woody Allen
Stars:
Justin Timberlake,
Juno Temple,
Robert C. Kirk
During the early years of Nazi occupation of France in World War II, romance blooms between Lucile Angellier (Michelle Williams), a French villager, and Lieutenant Bruno von Falk (Matthias Schoenaerts), a German soldier.
Director:
Saul Dibb
Stars:
Michelle Williams,
Kristin Scott Thomas,
Margot Robbie
In England during World War II, a repressed dressmaker and her sister struggle looking after their seventeen-year-old niece, who is having a delusional affair with an American soldier.
Director:
Jim O'Brien
Stars:
Joan Plowright,
Billie Whitelaw,
Pete Postlethwaite
Based on Rosalie Ham's best selling novel, The Dressmaker is the story of femme fatale Tilly Dunnage who returns to her small home town in the country to right the wrongs of the past. A stylish drama with comic undertones about love, revenge and haute couture.Written by
Sue Maslin
Kate Winslet used the same dialogue coach who helped her prepare the Australian accent for Holy Smoke (1999) and only had to re-record one scene during post-production. In a scene with the New Zealand-based Kerry Fox, Winslet would adapt the accent and accidentally revert to Fox' accent; "I'm a terrible one for picking up accents from other people - especially Kerry, because hers is so 'thuck'." has Winslet said. See more »
Goofs
In 1951, the characters talk about being children (in 1926) and playing at Superman. The first Superman comic was not published until 1938. See more »
Banished from a remote and sparsely populated Australian town when she was ten, Tilly (Kate Winslet) returns many years later. Fresh from conquering the fashion world in Paris, Tilly's form fitting red dress turns heads immediately. Some say Tilly committed a horrible crime and was cursed for it. Tilly has come in order to better learn the truth about what really happened and to set things right. There are many things on her mind including determining her own guilt in the matter, her mother Molly who appears to be mad, lifting the curse, finding love and revenge, among other things.
Battle lines form. Many want Tilly to be guilty and cursed. They work to get her seen in the worst light. The haters may even include Tilly's mother Molly. Yet there are many who believe in Tilly. As she sets up a dress making shop and helps create new and better characters for people, her allies grow. The dresses she makes change how people see themselves and how others view them. It may not be Tilly who is cursed, rather it might be the town for the judgments that they heaped upon a girl.
At the heart of this wonderful film is the theme of how a few awful people make life so bad for others by their terrible and swift judgments. The film is set in the 1950s and is both serious and funny. P.J. Hogan is one of the best screenwriters. His stories are complex and full of amazing twists & turns. His insight into human nature, especially female characters, is spot-on. Added to the spell-binding writing is superb acting by Kate Winslet, Hugo Weaving and the others, the always intriguing back-drop of Australia, compelling themes and characters, and superb directing and organization. Of the 32 films I saw at the Toronto International Film Festival this year, this was the best.
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Banished from a remote and sparsely populated Australian town when she was ten, Tilly (Kate Winslet) returns many years later. Fresh from conquering the fashion world in Paris, Tilly's form fitting red dress turns heads immediately. Some say Tilly committed a horrible crime and was cursed for it. Tilly has come in order to better learn the truth about what really happened and to set things right. There are many things on her mind including determining her own guilt in the matter, her mother Molly who appears to be mad, lifting the curse, finding love and revenge, among other things.
Battle lines form. Many want Tilly to be guilty and cursed. They work to get her seen in the worst light. The haters may even include Tilly's mother Molly. Yet there are many who believe in Tilly. As she sets up a dress making shop and helps create new and better characters for people, her allies grow. The dresses she makes change how people see themselves and how others view them. It may not be Tilly who is cursed, rather it might be the town for the judgments that they heaped upon a girl.
At the heart of this wonderful film is the theme of how a few awful people make life so bad for others by their terrible and swift judgments. The film is set in the 1950s and is both serious and funny. P.J. Hogan is one of the best screenwriters. His stories are complex and full of amazing twists & turns. His insight into human nature, especially female characters, is spot-on. Added to the spell-binding writing is superb acting by Kate Winslet, Hugo Weaving and the others, the always intriguing back-drop of Australia, compelling themes and characters, and superb directing and organization. Of the 32 films I saw at the Toronto International Film Festival this year, this was the best.