Tamara Drewe (2010)

Being only able to give Tamara Drewe just two cheers makes me feel oddly churlish. It has a great cast and the ensemble does well and the setting is great (though a little worse weather, even a few duller days, would have made the rural setting rather more truthful - friends we really don't get that much sunshine in Old Blighty, not even in Hardy's Dorset). So why my reservations?Well, I think it has to do with the fact that the film is based 'on a graphic novel' that was, I think, in turn based on a newspaper strip cartoon. And there's the rub: you can get away with a great deal more in a cartoon than you can in straight film (which, after all is what Tamara Drewe is). In the graphic novel I'm sure the story made perfect sense in that it doesn't really have to make a great deal of sense. But on film? Hmm.The set-up is promising enough, but as the film goes on it doesn't really hang together all that well. You can't have it both ways: either the characters, especially Tamare Drewe herself, behave naturalisticaly or they don't. But they can't do both. I can accept Tamara falling for the crass drummer, but wholly inexplicable is why she later goes on to bed the narcissistic middle-age philandering crime novelist. And that man's wife might be gullible, but surely to goodness outside of a graphic novel no one is that gullible. Another character who is more at home in the graphic novel is the free- loving barmaid at the local pub. And exactly what role she plays in the whole set-up is none to clear.Having said that, Tamara Drewe is a pleasant way to spend 90 minutes, but it might have been even more pleasant had the producers decided to make of it a different animal entirely. Merely providing a film version of the graphic novel doesn't really cut it. Shame.

Comedy can be a difficult thing to do really well, and so many filmmakers have learned this the hard way. Having a great cast and competent director is instantly negated if the script is weak, because the material for them to work off simply isn't there. Unfortunately, this is the curse that "Tamara Drewe" suffers greatly from - it's got good moments and a fantastic group of skilled actors, but it never lives up to its promise.The film tells the story of a small English country town which is suddenly turned over when Tamara Drewe (Gemma Arterton), an attractive journalist, returns to the village after many years. A lot of people are drawn to Tamara, including a drummer, a local farm-hand and an ageing writer, and there is a bit of good comedy from their reactions to her. The writer, played the fantastic Roger Allam, has an affair with her despite his long term marriage to his wife, played by Tamsin Greig. The chaos which Tamara creates is occasionally funny, but is sometimes too drawn out and unrealistic to be enjoyable. Gemma Arterton is mostly quite annoying as Tamara, and the fact that the film doesn't actually have a very likable main character prevents it from becoming too enjoyable.What really lifts the film from being completely awful is the cast of experienced actors and a few good comedic set pieces. Allam and Greig's chemistry and arguing is very well managed, and Allam gives us a fantastic depiction of the 'mid-life crisis' through his ageing writer. Dominic Cooper is also quite amusing as the vain rockstar, but Luke Evans' 'hunky farm-boy' act is relatively dull. The two children who keep messing things up are also very irritating, and despite being crucial to certain chaotic events in the movie, really just feel like someone should give them a slap.Stephen Frears helms the film, and this makes it slightly more disappointing given the recent successes of "The Queen" and "High Fidelity", which I loved greatly. He does capture the countryside well, and makes it a good setting for so much romantic mayhem. The script is a large problem however, keeping too many romcom clichés while trying to work as a slower paced screwball comedy. We are in the 'ridiculous' so much that it makes it disappointing that unfortunately we never reach the 'sublime'. While 'Tamara Drewe' is light and mostly well acted, perhaps it's just not for me.

Cartoonist Posy Simmons has been chronicling the secret fears and loathings of the middle classes for over 30 years. But what makes her cartoons funny is the way a single picture, an exaggerated drawing of an eye or an uncomfortable smirk, can speak a thousand words. Make a film of a cartoon - and make fully explicit the implied contents of Posy's seductive images - and the danger is that what you get is too shallow to work as a serious film, without the delights of Posy's drawings (like a moving version of a dreadful photo-comic). So it is with Stephen Frears' version of 'Tamara Drewe', which occurs in a picture-perfect version of the English countryside, has a soundtrack that explicitly declares the film to be a caper, and a cast of characters, many beautiful, all one-dimensional, and none of whom you care for. Roger Allam, playing a role not wholly dissimilar role to his part in 'The Thick of It', is good fun, but it feels overall more like a sketched outline than something fully worked out: more storyboard than cartoon.

TAMARA DREWE already had a following from her appearance in the best selling graphic novel by the same name by Posy Simmonds, an so it was probably not too difficult for the talented Stephen Frears to direct a pitch perfect cast to bring the delightful story to the screen. Filled to the brim with excellent actors this strange little story has many levels of meaning, but the main story is very well served.Tamara Drewe (Gemma Arterton) was historically a face to forget in the town of Ewedon, but she leaves for the city and plastic surgery and returns with a new nose and facelift that makes her as attractive as any lass in the town. She plays on the talents of married highly successful crime novelist Nicholas (Roger Allam) to polish her writing skills - the cost is an affair that leaves Nicholas ready to divorce his perfect wife (Tamsin Grieg). She also attracts the interest of her childhood solid friend Andy (Luke Evans) and the rather superficial and silly rock star Ben (Dominic Cooper) and eventually, with the running of interference by two loathsome little girls (Charlotte Christie and Jessica Barden), and it all turns out with many surprises! It is a dissection of relationships a la Thomas Hardy and Frears know how to make it all work very well.It is always a pleasure to be in the company of fine British actors in a lovely English countryside setting and this is no exception. Everyone in the cast is excellent - and it continues to be a pleasure to watch the very talented Dominic Cooper grow in the challenging roles he assumes. There are many reasons to enjoy this film, and among them is the sheer craftsmanship of the British cinema. Grady Harp