Kate Winslet and Judy Davis steal the whole movie. Liam Hemsworth is very nice on the eye. Everyone else is a caricature.
The movie was surprisingly humorous for the first 90 minutes. Not all the one liners are in the trailer after all. But then the plot takes a dark turn and really loses its way. The book probably took its time to get all the characters to the end, but the last part of the movie feels rushed and really rather silly, in a slapstick kind of way. First the townsfolk hate Tilly then they love her, then they hate her, then they're back pleading with her to make costumes to save the town's pride ... Honestly, I felt like I was getting whiplash trying to keep up with it.
The other distracting aspect is that Kate Winslet is looking her age and while she's still fabulous, Liam Hemsworth is 15 years younger than she is in real life, and it's just not remotely believable that they were children of a similar age growing up together. Winslet was probably wearing her first makeup and heels, the day Hemsworth was born.
On the plus side, Winslet gives a flawless performance, including the Aussie accent, which is notoriously difficult to pull off convincingly. Meryl Strep's dreadful attempt at an Aussie accent in Evil Angels just proved how hard it is to do. All credit to Winslet. And it was fabulous seeing Judy Davis on the screen again. The fight between the two of them before the bath scene was hilarious.
The movie was surprisingly humorous for the first 90 minutes. Not all the one liners are in the trailer after all. But then the plot takes a dark turn and really loses its way. The book probably took its time to get all the characters to the end, but the last part of the movie feels rushed and really rather silly, in a slapstick kind of way. First the townsfolk hate Tilly then they love her, then they hate her, then they're back pleading with her to make costumes to save the town's pride ... Honestly, I felt like I was getting whiplash trying to keep up with it.
The other distracting aspect is that Kate Winslet is looking her age and while she's still fabulous, Liam Hemsworth is 15 years younger than she is in real life, and it's just not remotely believable that they were children of a similar age growing up together. Winslet was probably wearing her first makeup and heels, the day Hemsworth was born.
On the plus side, Winslet gives a flawless performance, including the Aussie accent, which is notoriously difficult to pull off convincingly. Meryl Strep's dreadful attempt at an Aussie accent in Evil Angels just proved how hard it is to do. All credit to Winslet. And it was fabulous seeing Judy Davis on the screen again. The fight between the two of them before the bath scene was hilarious.