Dressmaker, The

"The Dressmaker" is also uneven, a British film with an odd mix of eccentric droll comedy and light drama.

The story has two older sisters, one a spinster (Joan Plowright) and the other a widow (Billie Whitelaw), raising their neice (Jane Horrocks) during World War II. Plowright definitely has the upper hand, however, as Horrocks has grown up to be a very timid, plainly dressed 17-year-old.

But Whitelaw tries to help Horrocks break out, sometimes with some rather ill-advised suggestions, and the result is Horrocks' obsessive relationship with a young American soldier (Tim Ransom) stationed in London.

He wants sex, she wants to remain a virgin, but she's convinced she loves him and pursues him, though he's obviously uninterested. Why he doesn't just go elsewhere to get what he wants is never satisfactorily explained, but he comes back for more rejection and ultimately decides to make a sexual play for Whitelaw. She's been married, you see.

It's never clear in the film's early moments just what we are to make of Ransom. Does he really care at all about Horrocks? Is he a manipulator who simply wants to "have his way" with her? And are we to believe that Whitelaw is as frivolous as she seems?

The film is rather slow in getting to the point, but it maintains interest most of the way, thanks in large part to interesting supporting characters.

Then there is an out-of-left-field twist ending that seems strangely dark considering all that has gone before, and for me it left a rather unsatisfying aftertaste.

Still, "The Dressmaker" is not without interest. It is unrated, but would doubtless receive a PG-13 for sex, nudity and violence, all played down in a rather low-key manner.