This is a good movie. In addition to the actors' acting skills, there are all kinds of exquisite costumes of actresses and the local customs of small towns in southeastern Australia. The photography of the film is also good, and you can feel it from the beginning. A bus shuttled through the yellow land in the south, taking pictures at high altitude. The vastness of the venue is in stark contrast to the narrowness of the bus, causing visual shock.
But for me, the plot of this film is particularly good: first, it is complex but not messy, profound but not boring, ordinary but not losing strength. Second, the way of telling is very special and euphemistic. On the surface, it tells the story of a seamstress, but in fact it is far more than that.
So, let me tell this story next.
Tilly, a little girl, and Molly, her mother, live in an Australian town far from Melbourne, and they live alone. The little girl has no father, and she and her mother are not welcome in town. People call Molly a slut, and the children call Tilly "Dunni". When Tilly was ten years old and playing with her friends, a little boy named Stuart died. Everyone in the town thinks Tilly is the murderer, because only Tilly is there. So, the town police officer Ferra and Stuart's father, who is also the mayor, decided to send Tilly away. She was forced to leave the town and her mother and went to Melbourne, London, Milan, Paris and other places.
Twenty years later, the beautiful and fashionable Tilly returned to her original town. Mother was untidy, and the house was messy and full of rubbish. Few people, including her mother, want her to come back, because she is a murderer and she is cursed.
Tilly's first words when she arrived in town were: I'm back, you bastards! It's more like revenge than peace for a wounded and abandoned person to come back and say such things. She will certainly have the power to surpass her opponent. Unfortunately, the people in the town have not changed much, and they still treat her with prejudice and discrimination.
The first thing Tilly did when she got home was to hit a hard golf ball at the roof of her childhood "enemy" to annoy her. It's just revenge. What she really wants is to find out why she was treated as a murderer when she was a child and why she was sent away. She conquered the hearts of women in the town by making beautiful clothes, and gradually understood the situation at that time. Officer Ferrar is crazy about women's clothes and fabrics. Tilly not only conquered him, but also got his friendship, support and help. Teddy, a handsome boy in town, is fascinated by her and doesn't care about other people's discrimination against her. With all kinds of efforts and help, she finally realized that she didn't kill the little boy Stuart. The little boy Stuart has always been a violent attacker like a bull. He died at his own hands when he attacked Tilly. Everything seems to be going well, but bad luck is coming again. Her boyfriend Teddy died unexpectedly, and her mother died of a stroke soon after. The job of tailor also met with competition, and the mayor invited a new seamstress. Once the women in the town no longer need her to make clothes, they will restore their prejudice against her, and even more envy will turn into hate. It is not so easy for her to clarify the fact that she is not the murderer: someone always framed her, but the police officer who supported her was removed from his post and investigated.
It turns out that she is the best tailor. But she doesn't want to stay in this town anymore. Burned down the house and got on the train to Paris.
When she left, she had another hatred: "You have never seen garbage". What is the rubbish she said? Your own house? Childhood in town? People and life in the town?
This is not a simple story, and people are not as kind as they think, nor is it a simple story of one good turn deserves another, and one evil turn deserves another. Fate is never fair. Okay, Teddy died so easily. Tilly, who has suffered a lot, will never get people's understanding and care. What's wrong with people in this town? Don't they just know right from wrong, good from evil?
There is nothing wrong with most people in town. It's really good. They are accomplices in hurting Tilly because they are deceived and blinded by evil and authority. Only one or two evil people, or Mr. Mayor. Now I want to tell the story of this film from another angle.
Mr. Iman, the mayor, came to this town because he fell in love with Molly, but at that time he was still a nobody. Molly was twenty years old, pregnant and gave birth to Tilly. However, Iman soon went after another woman, Marigold (the name is quite naked). Mary Ge was the daughter of the mayor at that time, and her family was rich. Iman married Mary Ge and gave birth to a son Stuart. Stewart's aggressive personality exposed the extreme disharmony of the couple's married life. Indeed, this marriage is unfortunate: Mary Ge agreed to marry Iman because she was pregnant and gave birth to a son. Iman married Mary Ge because she took a fancy to her property and power. Iman, as always, was having an affair outside and went home to control Marigo with drugs. One of the details is that after he hypnotized Mary Ge with drugs, he actually had sex with her in a coma. What a pervert! Mary Ge loves cleanliness very much, but he invites tailors and guests to hold various activities at his home. Facing the guest's dirty carpet and messy room, Mary Craig felt like a knife, but Iman didn't care. The existence of Molly's mother and daughter worried Iman. Not only was he indifferent to his son Stuart's attack on his daughter Tilly, but he also used his son's death to frame Tilly. In this way, he can not only send Tilly away, but also hurt Molly, and maybe force Molly to death and get rid of her troubles. Tilly's tragic fate is caused by this Iman. It is because of kindness that people in the town sympathize with Stuart's death and are full of prejudice and discrimination against Tilly. Not all kindness will bring good results. It is not that the eyes of the masses must be discerning.
One of the comforting things in the movie is that Mary Ge finally realized the essence of Iman and killed him herself.
So the story-telling level of this film is very high: a lot of scenes and activities are performed by the beautiful seamstress Tilly, and occasionally the scenes are swept to Iman. This euphemistic expression is just like the iceberg theory in novel creation. Icebergs are just the tip of water, and the strength and shape of the potential bottom are incalculable.
Good expression is not the most important thing, thought is. The complexity of human nature revealed by this story is worth pondering. Molly once said to Tilly: When you were sent away, I felt heartbroken and couldn't live any longer. But slowly, I don't want you to come back to see you again. Tilly has always been bitter about being sent away as a child. Molly said that if you hadn't been sent away, our mother and daughter would have to live in seclusion in the mountains. But now when you come back, you create, you change people. That's very powerful. You should use it. This is just a small detail I remember, which can be used as an example. Just like this story, human nature is complex but not messy, profound but not boring, ordinary without losing strength.
This film is highly recommended.