Name : Ignatiy Vishnevetsky / Alias : AV Club
A deranged melodrama where any sense of soapy, campy fun is undercut by the preachy, self-serious tone.

Name : Scott Foundas / Alias : Variety
More professionally produced and acted than the indiegelical norm, but only fitfully engaging on a dramatic level and entirely hermetic on a theological one.

Name : Rafer Guzman / Alias : Newsday
A self-aggrandizing sermon that preaches only to the faithful.

Name : Alonso Duralde / Alias : TheWrap
Wherever you fall on the spectrum of spirituality, the only answer to "Do You Believe?" is "No."

Name : Esther Zuckerman / Alias : AV Club
The film is most successful when it's playing dress-up, less so when the comedy goes black, and worst off when it attempts melodrama.

Name : Stephen Whitty / Alias : New York Daily News
"The Dressmaker" is only sew-sew.

Name : Jon Frosch / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
Little here "works" in any traditional sense of that word, but the film boasts enough manic energy and straight-up weirdness to keep you entertained before overstaying its welcome in the final act.

Name : Ann Hornaday / Alias : Washington Post
Overplotted, undercooked and extremely well-dressed, "The Dressmaker" has style to burn, but it has a mean streak as wide as the Outback.

Name : Bill Goodykoontz / Alias : Arizona Republic
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.

Name : Claudia Puig / Alias : TheWrap
There are giggles to be had - especially given the talents of cast members like Winslet, Davis, Hemsworth and Weaving - but the laughs are not quite plentiful enough to make up for its awkward contrivances.

Name : Rex Reed / Alias : New York Observer
Whatever were they smoking?

Name : Amy Nicholson / Alias : MTV
The second Winslet sets her sewing machine on the ground and snarls, "I'm back, you bastards," we're delighted to hear we're in for something fun.

Name : Marissa Martinelli / Alias : Slate
The Dressmaker may be a revenge comedy, but it never quite conforms to our expectations of what that should mean. And that seems to be exactly how Moorhouse wants it.

Name : Andrew Lapin / Alias : NPR
This confused and overlong film inhabits a world of caustic darkness that not even an expert seamstress could patch over with silly pratfalls.

Name : J. R. Jones / Alias : Chicago Reader
Emotionally garbled.

Name : A.O. Scott / Alias : New York Times
Unfortunately, and despite its promising start, "The Dressmaker" doesn't move much beyond the level of well-costumed playacting.

Name : Peter Travers / Alias : Rolling Stone
Kate Winslet can do anything . except save this movie from quirky overkill.

Name : Robert Abele / Alias : Los Angeles Times
What starts as a cheeky lark about bad reputations and snazzy transformations never really gels into something truly funny or even appetizingly weird.

Name : Kyle Smith / Alias : New York Post
The Titanic is now the second-biggest disaster Kate Winslet has ever been associated with.

Name : Justin Chang / Alias : Variety
Moorhouse's adaptation of Rosalie Ham's 2000 novel may lead audiences to expect a primmer, more well-behaved movie based on its title alone, but that doesn't mean it won't have them in stitches.

Name : Abbey Bender / Alias : Village Voice
Perhaps it's meant to be somehow mythic, but mostly The Dressmaker is just cruel.

Name : Susan Wloszczyna / Alias : RogerEbert.com
Positively explodes with a surfeit of pent-up creative energy that unfortunately doesn't know when to stop.

Name : Tom Russo / Alias : Boston Globe
It might not all flow, but between Winslet and castmate Judy Davis's various spitfire moments and some potent dark turns, there's a fair amount to like.

Name : Peter Rainer / Alias : Christian Science Monitor
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.

Name : Walter V. Addiego / Alias : San Francisco Chronicle
Tonal inconsistencies sink "The Dressmaker," and the same applies to Winslet's character.

Name : Linda Barnard / Alias : Toronto Star
The tone repeatedly flips from quirky to woeful. The costumes are gorgeous, though.