X
- 2010
- R
- Sony Pictures Classics
- 1 h 47 m
- 2010
- R
- Sony Pictures Classics
- 1 h 47 m
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 Belte...
Directed By: Stephen Frears
Written By: Posy Simmonds, Moira Buffini
- 2010
- R
- Sony Pictures Classics
- 1 h 47 m
- 2010
- R
- Sony Pictures Classics
- 1 h 47 m
Tamara Drewe
64
6.3
Where to Watch
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 Belte...
Directed By: Stephen Frears
Written By: Posy Simmonds, Moira Buffini
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 28 Critic Reviews
64
71% Positive
20 Reviews
20 Reviews
29% Mixed
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 28 Critic Reviews
64
71% Positive
20 Reviews
20 Reviews
29% Mixed
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Tamara Drewe is one of those British comedies in which, one way or another, we envy all of the characters.
The deadly sins of envy, lust and salacious gossip in deepest rural England provide the motor for Stephen Frears's black romp, featuring vivacious former Bond girl Gemma Arterton.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 38 User Ratings
6.3
47% Positive
18 Ratings
18 Ratings
42% Mixed
16 Ratings
16 Ratings
11% Negative
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 38 User Ratings
6.3
47% Positive
18 Ratings
18 Ratings
42% Mixed
16 Ratings
16 Ratings
11% Negative
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
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.)
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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.
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A real old-fashioned crowd-pleaser.
Frears might have accelerated the comic pacing, but the story is a good one and events come nicely to a boil.
It's easy to watch.
The tone is both satiric and serious, zany but heartfelt, and for a while - maybe 20 minutes - all seems well.
The book itself is an easy read -- conveniently enough, it shouldn't take you more than two hours. So you might want to skip the discordant copy, and use that time to discover the real thing.
Following the death of her mother, Tamara Drewe returns to her remote hometown. He has a new nose and a huge new charm. His presence therefore profoundly upsets the balance of the village. The handyman Andy, her first boyfriend, and the famous writer Nicholas Hardiment, who runs a meeting place for artists with his wife, immediately fall in love with her. A comedy that leaves a little perplexed, certainly only half satisfying.
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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.
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Oh dear. This proved to be a fairly mediocre mess of a film. So much cliche, full of mostly bland, forgettable characters. Gemma Arterton is fine, as are most of the performers, but some like the excellent Tamsin Greig deserve better. One particularly cringeworthy scene features Dominic Cooper woo-ing Gemma Arterton by playing the drums on pots and pans with his feet... I guess that's love. It even manages to mess up the one good relationship in the whole film. Disappointing.
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Other than a general tendency not to want to pan a movie entirely, I'm not sure what I'm giving it 4 for. The majority of the characters were uniformly unpleasant, the quantity of swearing off-putting (though that's how we know it's a Brit comedy I suppose) and the general themes rather over-worked and reworked without humour. Tamsin Greig's Beth was just about worthy, though coming across so down-trodden it was difficult to feel very much sympathy, even in the face of Nicholas' infidelity and insufferable smugness (something Roger Allam does very well). Arterton's Drewe is just plain colourless. Whilst the camera loved her curves, there was little else on show: no motivation, no sympathy, no humour.
Comparisons with Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd are obvious, but unworthy, and the fact that it was based on a graphic novel is no excuse for cartoon characters that are spiked with inhumanity, rather than leavened with humanity.
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Production Company
Ruby Films,
BBC Film,
Notting Hill Films,
UK Film Council,
WestEnd Films
Release Date Oct 8, 2010
Duration 1 h 47 m
Rating R
Tagline A comedy about sex, love and a nose job...
Awards
Evening Standard British Film Awards
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
Cannes Film Festival
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
Seville European Film Festival
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
