Kate Winslet Makes Dresses, Maybe Murdered Someone in The Dressmaker

Kate Winslet, the actress with a ticket to space, has been making plenty of odd decisions since winning an Academy Award for 2008’s The Reader. Many Oscar winners (like, oh, Kim Basinger) quickly lose their luster. The most talented among them (like, oh, Meryl Streep) remain at the top of their game for decades. Others (this is the biggest chunk) just keep working. And though they may never win another major award, a combination of talent and charm (and a good agent) will keep their reputations solid and name recognition high for as long as they’re willing to say “yes.”

Since winning her statue, Kate Winslet has been the villain of the Divergent series, a woman who bakes pies with a criminal in Labor Day, and a landscape architect in A Little Chaos. Next up? She’s an Australian dressmaker who may or may not also be a murderer in…The Dressmaker. Based on a novel of the same name, the film tells the story of Tilly Dunnage, a woman who returns to the small Australian town she left at age 10 after murdering (maybe?!) a young boy. She impresses the townsfolk with her fancy clothes, falls in love with Liam Hemsworth, and even does a makeover or two.

It looks cute and weird! It also looks sort of like To Wong Foo—plus Australia and minus the drag queens.

I’m not sure whether Winslet (who did win an Emmy for her astounding performance in 2011’s Mildred Pierce) will go down in history as a Streep or as an…everyone else, but I’m happy she’s keeping me interested.