Yes No Maybe So: Kate Winslet IS The Dressmaker
Tuesday, July 14, 2015 at 3:48PM This is dedicated to the patient among you, those who don't badger me about things they KNOW are coming. (Like we're not going to cover this trailer, at TFE! It's like you've never been here before). Most importantly this is dedicated to the die-hard Kate Winslet fans who will sit through Labor Day, Divergent, and A Little Chaos to be there her true return to form whenever it happens. By the looks of this trailer for The Dressmaker, the wait may soon be over.
The Yes No Maybe So breakdown, which is crazy overstuffed with screencaps since this diva murderess fashionista Oscar winner demands them, is after the jump with the trailer...
Yes please. A dried up Aussie landscape interrupted by a feminine gloved hand. Cheeky disruptions
DUH, YES. Kate Winslet. Her face was made for the big screen. Especially while wearing smart period chapeaus.
Yes. Intrigued am I by the establishing shot visuals. They're memorably introducing us to wherever this tale is set, some town in the boonies. They're minimalist yet all the images pop with great composition or color details. So much so that I felt compelled to look up the cinematographer. Ahhhhh, Donald McAlpine. ♥ We are in very good hands. He shot Moulin Rouge! and Romeo + Juliet and Peter Pan (2003).
Quick story beats: Myrtle Dunnage has returned home. The town law enforcement (Hugo Weaving) seems to like her. Or at least have a history with her. They banter. Then...
-How's my mother?
-Molly doesn't get out much."
YES. Judy Davis. The cinema has sorely missed you. Plus this trailer is so great at introducing things: locale, characters. Very punchy.
Maybe So. We see Liam Hemsworth for a minute. He wonders how Myrtle has turned out - hasn't seen her since she was a kid. Um... since Liam is 15 years younger than Kate this seems like a very strange thing to say. Will the casting work out? Will they have chemistry?
Maybe So. Everything is very bold. Look at all that Production Design / Set Decoration. But with the whistling music and the very dressed sets and very quirky characterizations and mega-costumed Kate... could it all be a bit much? The tone -- if the trailer is any indication -- will be tricky to pull off for a whole feature.
Details details: check out this wacky hairdo!
She's back! The murderess is back!
Yes. A whole town completely obsessed with Kate Winslet? So... every town basically (in a perfect world)
No. People think she killed somebody but the trailer doesn't let on if she actually did or not. Her mother seems to know something that she isn't telling. Would that the trailer would be as mum as mum. I think we're getting too much of the plot. And if you give us the whole plot, why would you expect people (other than actress obsessives) to buy tickets?
But back to things that matter like Judy F***ing Davis and Kate Winslet in full diva mode.
Yes.
People may have forgotten this but Judy Davis is kind of a genius actor. Cross your fingers that she's still got it.
YES.
HOLY GOD(DESS) YES
Yes Sure why not to Liam being cute and flirting with Kate.
Hell Yes. to this whole scene I forgot to screencap where frumpy Gertrud (fast rising Aussie actress Sarah Snook) thinks a "dress can't change anything.". Kate shakes out her hairdo and gets sassy
Watch and learn, Gertrud, watch and learn.
Yes to any film which asks Kate Winslet to strike a pose. Vogue.Vogue.Vogue.
(Paint her like one of your French girls)
- Take your clothes off.
- A Murderer and a Lesbian.
LOL yes
Yes
to Kate looking so talented and confident and her screen mum encouraging her. Plus we get a makeover sequence obviously for Sarah Snook. Yay, makeover scenes! The women's picture equivalent of the training sequences in action, sports drama, and superhero films.
NO. TOO MUCH PLOT, TRAILER, TOO MUCH PLOT.
I'm skipping all that. But Liam does say "you're wasted here" to Kate to which I must say "doesn't look like it. Looks like she's finally got fun stuff to do on screen again."
Check out these title cards...
Obviously Double Yes
But, question, Why doesn't Judy Davis get "Academy Award Nominee" by her name? She's a two time nominee and shoulda won already!
YES [*fans self*]
To a moment when Liam yanks Kate against his body with her measuring tape. Seduced by your own tools of the trade? Love it. (Forgot to screen cap but it needs a gif for maximum heat)
Yes to the guys even since they seem to "get" her. Though why is Hugo Weaving pretending this is a sequel to The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert? This is one question the trailer does not answer.
I reckon you'd make some bloke pretty happy.
If by 'some bloke,' Liam means "all actressexuals" then double yes.
Yes
The post title stinger features a shirtless Liam as Judy flirts. So prime actressing from two of cinema's greatest AND beefcake bonus?. Spoiling us, this movie might.
I'm as big a yes as Kate Winslet's dress is eye-catching red. You?
Reader Comments (55)
Judy D as Judy G remains a towering achievement, her best this century IMO. And she walked away with every TV Best Actress award in the category that year. Would have been interesting to see if she could have taken the Oscar from Halle Berry.
Paul OUtlaw: I hear that both she and Tammy Blanchard are sensational in that, which makes me sad I never caught it when it aired on TV.
Speaking of big-screen portrayals of Judy Garland, wasn't there talk of Toni Collette playing her in a movie a while back?
Troy, it's available on DVD.
It looks a romantic slightly black comedy from the trailer. so Kate may probably be nom in Globes com/musical cat...Oscar-wise too early to tell, cos they favour dramatic roles more
Judy Davis was actually hotly tipped to win Best Supp Actress for Woody Allen's Husband & Wives back in 1992. In an upset, Marisa Tomei was the eventual winner for My Cousin Vinny
Davis was also phenomenal & heart-breaking in the Judy Garland biopic: Me & My Shadow (2001). She won the Emmy, Globes & SAG for that TV movie special & Metink she wld won the Oscar had it been released in the cinema instead of tv
Nathaniel - The Eye of the Storm got a seriously tiny release here in the states, but it did happen. I sought it out in Miami for a week-long run. It also ran "on demand"...and there is a DVD out there. While the film has some major flaws, the utter brilliance Judy exudes is worth the effort. It's some of her finest work, ever.
I'm so crazily a YES for Dressmaker. Two of my all time favorites as mother and daughter? Be still my rapidly beating heart!!