WillSushyMedia
This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.
Bea Swanson
This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.
Ariella Broughton
It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.
fedor8
The only thing going for this ridiculous movie is its somewhat flashy visual quality and grimy setting. Everything else is sub-par.Let's start with the inane casting of Winslet and Pretty Boy as peers. Kate is 15 years older. If Helmsworthy had a more rugged face he might even pass off as being for example only 5 years younger, but he's the complete opposite: even sticking a beard onto his Teletubby face doesn't age him enough to make us believe Kate and Liam had shared the same classes at school once. The only way that would have been possible is if Winslet failed a grade 15 consecutive times. Hence their romance looks stupid. It looks fake, and lacks chemistry even despite both actors being fairly likable.The schizophrenic to-and-fro between broad comedy and soaper drama makes the story absurd, clumsy and these wild transitions are anyway totally unnecessary. This should have been an all-out comedy. A bad comedy, but at least a movie with purpose, with direction - bad as that direction may be. Worse yet, the style of comedy is mostly farcical i.e. the cheapest and unfunniest kind of comedy. Farce is for children, yet this isn't a kiddie movie, so whom is this nonsense intended for? Unfortunately, Aussie humour being too broad and annoyingly animated - hence failing miserably - is nothing new. It's as if emigrating to the Land Down Under made all these English people completely lose their sense of humour.Furthermore, the characterizations are not only boring in their one-dimensional simplicity, people's behavior is sometimes utterly illogical. How Winslet's father's wife doesn't know that everyone blames Kate for the demise of her son - that's one for movie detectives to figure out. It makes zero sense that a woman whose son had been killed many years ago is the only person in a gossipy tiny town that doesn't know who the alleged culprit is. This is literally an impossibility. The movie implies that she is completely out of it, loony, but this is a flimsy excuse, a very weak and unconvincing plot-device. The novel this piffle is based on must be awful. It will hardly become a literary classic, much as this movie is destined for oblivion.Nor do we really understand why Kate's real father would have Winslet thrown out of the town for a crime she never committed. He'd been keeping the secret of his bastard daughter very successfully for ten years so why this loathing for Winslet? If he were that worried about his secret becoming public he should have tried to exile Judy Davis who knew. Winslet certainly didn't. The less said the better about the MORONIC way in which the boy accidentally killed himself: too stupid for words. Pretending he was a bull and charging people? This movie can't make up its mind whether it wants to be a cheesy soap or a bizarre, eccentric comedy.But it's the last quarter of the movie that really sinks this mediocrity. Suddenly TD goes into "Gone With the Wind" mode, killing off its characters left and right. The demise of Kate's new boyfriend is particularly idiotic. A very forced plot-device that serves no purpose - other than to make us pity Kate even more, and keep her isolated and unhappy once again: a true mark of weak and corny writing. But then: how do you take a FARCE seriously enough to pity anyone? You don't create cardboard characters - and then suddenly expect us to take them seriously on a dramatic level. Sure, Kate and her toyboy have more depth to them than the others, but everyone else in the town is a boring, unrealistic, goofy stereotype not ripe for real drama in the slightest. It'd be like suddenly turning a Popeye cartoon into melodrama mode.
Weeksmarissa
Amazing movie! Different. Captivating. Hilarious. Visually pleasing. Loved it from start to finish. Bravo!
bregund
One false note and the whole thing collapses. Typically, scripts are edited and re-edited until your eyes fall out, and then re-edited some more. To draw you in, everything should be plausible and believable: Believable characters, believable storylines, believable situations. This film managed to keep its balls in the air until 1/3 of the way through, when our zaftig, middle-aged heroine waddles into the middle of a rugby game and distracts the players with a cocktail dress. More than likely these men would have been puzzled by the incongruity, not smitten with desire for a woman old enough to be their aunt. Okay, one sour note in the storyline, I guess I can keep watching. Then along comes the playground scene. Tilly begs her schoolmate not to tell where she's hiding. Come on, man. This is a town of not more than thirty people in the middle of nowhere, how in the world can she expect to keep hiding indefinitely? It makes zero sense. You people who automatically rated this film ten stars just because it stars Kate Winslet should have your head examined.
jasontheterrible
When great care is taken with the cinematography and lighting, I want the big screen experience, but I avoided this film because the material did not grab me. It is immediately obvious they are using real film and that is rare, but what a treat! If one review had described the metamorphoses of the female forms and faces, I would have been there on opening night. That is no longer politically correct. The dress maker transforms rural hounds into breathtaking beauties with sexy dresses and super-hot make up. This happens in a backwards, rural town setting with a 1940's time flavor when glamour and man chasing was openly sanctioned. The story is good but the characters are the most fascinating bunch assembled in a long time and well played by all. Most will especially enjoy Winslet and Davis but all are good. The scoring is also great. See it for the sexual tension, raw beauty and love lessons.
