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Tamara Drewe
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Metascore
64 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 28 Critics What's this?

User Score
6.5 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 16 Ratings

Your Score
10 out of 10
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  • Starring: Dominic Cooper, Gemma Arterton, Luke Evans
  • Summary: Based on Posy Simmonds’ beloved graphic novel of the same name this wittily modern take on the romantic English pastoral is a far cry from Hardy’s Wessex. Tamara Drewe’s present-day English countryside—stocked with pompous writers, rich weekenders, bourgeois bohemians, a horny rock star, and a great many Buff Orpington chickens and Belted Galloway cows—is a much funnier place. When Tamara Drewe sashays back to the bucolic village of her youth, life for the locals is thrown upside down. Tamara—once an ugly duckling—has been transformed into a devastating beauty (with help from plastic surgery). As infatuations, jealousies, love affairs and career ambitions collide among the inhabitants of the neighboring farmsteads, Tamara sets a contemporary comedy of manners into play using the oldest magic in the book—sex appeal. (Sony Classics)… Expand

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 20 out of 28
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 28
  3. Negative: 0 out of 28
  1. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    Oct 20, 2010
    88
    Tamara Drewe is one of those British comedies in which, one way or another, we envy all of the characters.
  2. NPR
    Reviewed by: Ella Taylor
    Oct 20, 2010
    85
    On its own terms, Tamara Drewe is a hugely exuberant black comedy, unfolding over four scenic seasons at a writer's retreat set in a rose-strewn village overrun by city bobos in search of authenticity.
  3. Time Out New York
    Reviewed by: Keith Uhlich
    Oct 20, 2010
    60
    Strikingly picturesque locations and a terrific ensemble cast help this tonally inconsistent adaptation of Posy Simmonds's comic series pass by with relative ease, though it leaves a very peculiar aftertaste.

See all 28 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 5
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 5
  3. Negative: 0 out of 5
  1. palmbeachstory
    9
    I have been a fan of Stephen Frears since My Beautiful Launderette and The Hit. Tamara Drewes is a really delightful addition to his very varied body of work. It's quirky English comedy at a high level. Gemma Arterton is first rate as are the rest of the cast. A great little movie. I have no idea why the critics didn't rate it higher (but kudos as always to my faves--Ella Taylor and Peter Rainer--who know a good film when they see one.)… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  2. JennetP
    8
    A solidly middling Stephen Frears film--not a masterpiece like "Laundrette" or "Liaisons" or "High Fidelity," but not a bomb like "Mary Reilly." In "Tamara Drewe," we see familiar strengths on display: fully fleshed characters navigating minefields of desire with consequences alternately dire and ridiculous. But something about the film seems a little stale. Familiar stories abound: e.g. the ugly duckling who becomes a swan; the adulterous writer who claims art as his license; Far from the Madding Crowd. A third of the way in, it's clear who will get a happy ending--and why and with whom. Snore. For me, however, two 15-year-old troublemakers save the film from mawkishness. Whether egging cars or dabbling in more serious crime, their desperate boredom reveals a dark side to country living, and the film makes them, at once, perfectly appalling and enormously sympathetic. Jessica Barden and Charlotte Christie are wonderful as the teenagers, sharing an appetite for an imagined life elsewhere but otherwise very different. And it's smart and ironic that so many plot developments issue from their meddling, given their limited understanding of what they do. All in all, "Tamara Drewe" kept me engaged as I was watching, but I didn't have much to chew on afterward.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  3. TVJerry
    5
    This failed British comedy takes place at a writers' retreat in the country. The lackluster plot revolves around the egos and peccadilloes of the residents and how things are upended when lovely Tamara returns to town. The humor could be considered sophisticated, but I think diluted is a better description. The performances are good and the pacing clips along, but the dialogue doesn't provide much enjoyment.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes

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