The Dressmaker
| Release Date: September 23, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
47
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 27 Critic Reviews
Positive:
4
Mixed:
19
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
78
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesSep 28, 2016
The Dressmaker’s twists are best experienced blind, and its treats are modest but genuine. Read full review
65
TheWrapClaudia PuigSep 22, 2016
The fashions are a highlight, and the story of a seething snake pit of a town is watchable and intermittently amusing, until things take a jarring turn about halfway in. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comSusan WloszczynaSep 23, 2016
I can’t say this is the best film you will see all year, but I can assure you won’t see another one like it again for a long time. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTom RussoSep 22, 2016
Aussie Rosalie Ham’s quirky gothic novel is too tonally erratic to be completely satisfying. But we do get two Kates for the price of one, in a sense, as this crazy quilt of a movie allows her to play both entertainingly vampy and vulnerable. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzSep 22, 2016
Winslet and Davis salvage what they can from the movie — a heroic effort, almost, making it a fun trifle, albeit one with some deadly serious overtones. Read full review
60
EmpireAnna SmithNov 16, 2015
It’s still a giggle, largely thanks to Tilly’s cantankerous mother (Judy Davis) and the camp local cop (Hugo Weaving). Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterJon FroschSep 15, 2015
The film boasts enough manic energy and straight-up weirdness to keep you entertained before overstaying its welcome in the final act. Read full review
60
VarietyJustin ChangSep 15, 2015
Given the sheer number of threads that Moorhouse (who adapted the novel with her writer-director husband, P.J. Hogan) keeps in play, it’s surprising how well The Dressmaker coheres, albeit more along narrative lines than tonal ones. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubEsther ZuckermanSep 21, 2016
At its best, The Dressmaker looks like 1950s Vogue does the outback. Director Jocelyn Moorhouse poses Kate Winslet and the rest of her female cast in gorgeous finery against a dingy landscape, their expertly tailored garments contrasting splendidly against the dust. It’s a beautiful, bizarre, and funny juxtaposition. It works. The rest of the movie doesn’t. Read full review
50
ObserverRex ReedSep 28, 2016
Australian films are like local wines from Australian vineyards. They don’t always travel. A bore called The Dressmaker is the latest example. Read full review
50
Village VoiceAbbey BenderSep 28, 2016
Unfortunately, The Dressmaker does not deliver on this early promise. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter TraversSep 23, 2016
Kate Winslet can do anything ... except save this movie from quirky overkill. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerSep 23, 2016
The film has so many moodswings that watching it induces whiplash, and just about everybody in it, from Winslet on down to Judy Davis, playing the dressmaker’s crotchety mother, flagrantly overdoes it. Read full review
50
The New York TimesA.O. ScottSep 22, 2016
Unfortunately, and despite its promising start, The Dressmaker doesn’t move much beyond the level of well-costumed playacting. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleWalter AddiegoSep 22, 2016
Despite highly enjoyable moments and the welcome presence of Kate Winslet, even sympathetic viewers will be put off by the movie’s bewildering variety of genres and tones. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleSep 22, 2016
What starts as a cheeky lark about bad reputations and snazzy transformations never really gels into something truly funny or even appetizingly weird. Read full review
50
HitfixGregory EllwoodSep 15, 2015
Its admittedly interesting source material, but the movie’s tone is all over the place and not in a good way. Read full review
50
The PlaylistKevin JagernauthSep 15, 2015
That The Dressmaker remains watchable in any sense is thanks in large part to a cast who give the material that’s way beneath them far better treatment than it deserves. Read full review
42
The Film StageDaniel SchindelSep 21, 2016
It is an odd story, mixing haute couture, small-town gossipry, romance, dark secrets, an old murder mystery, and multiple random deaths. And yet it’s also not nearly odd enough, delivering all of this with a disappointingly straight-laced sensibility. Read full review
42
IndieWireKate ErblandSep 15, 2015
Fine performances by Kate Winslet, Liam Hemsworth and Judy Davis help matters a bit, but the final product is so oddly cobbled together that the entire thing should be left hanging on the rack. Read full review
40
We Got This CoveredMatt DonatoSep 19, 2016
Despite Winslet's stunning cowgirl fashionista, The Dressmaker is a whole lot of weirdness packed into a story that stumbles around like an emotionally-inept drunk. Read full review
40
The TelegraphTim RobeySep 16, 2015
The film’s major blunder – it’s got plenty of competition – is mistaking Kate Winslet for Rita Hayworth. Read full review
40
The GuardianBenjamin LeeSep 15, 2015
The film is a tonally uneven, genre-shifting hurricane of a thing, wildly careering off the rails and smashing into everything in its view. Read full review
38
Movie NationRoger MooreOct 11, 2016
The Dressmaker doesn’t so much change the pattern of this “Peyton Place” style story as render it ugly and humorless. Read full review
37
Washington PostAnn HornadaySep 22, 2016
Overplotted, undercooked and extremely well-dressed, The Dressmaker has style to burn, but it has a mean streak as wide as the Outback. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineElise NakhnikianSep 9, 2016
The frequent contemptuousness the film displays toward its characters keeps the audience at arm's length. Read full review
0
New York PostKyle SmithSep 22, 2016
"The Titanic" is now the second-biggest disaster Kate Winslet has ever been associated with. Her new one, The Dressmaker, is like some hellborn alloy of film noir, campy melodrama, “High Plains Drifter” and the Darwin Awards for people who die in moronic accidents. Read full review
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