Tamara Drewe (2010)
Certified: 16
Duration: 111 minutes
Directed by: Stephen Frears
Starring: Gemma Arterton, Roger Allam, Bill Camp, Dominic Cooper, Luke Evans, Tamsin Greig, Jessica Barden
KRS release
Tamara Drewe originated as a weekly comic strip published in The Guardian by Posy Simmonds. The story is a modern reinvention of the classic Thomas Hardy novel Far From The Maddening Crowd.
Stephen Frears, the man who brought us the likes of Dangerous Liaisions (1988), The Queen (2006) and Cheri (2009), delivers a comic romp that has an element of darkness underlying the varied elements in the film. While it retains its sense of being British, it comes with a self awareness that is not usually part of the package. What I found interesting was that while the film was dealing with serious stuff like adultery and despair, it still preserved an air of lightness.
The film is set in the town of Ewedown which we can presume to be a stone’s throw-away from London. Here we meet Beth Hardiment (Tamsin Greig), a middle-aged woman who is suffering due to her husband who has an oversized ego and is a serial cheater. Nicholas (Roger Allam) is also a successful crime novelist, who always expects his wife to administer to his needs. The town of Ewedown is in for a shock with the return of Tamara Drewe.
Tamara (Gemma Arterton) who was once a local girl, is now a successful newspaper columnist. She has had a nose job and has suddenly become quite a sex bomb. She is back to sell her mother’s house and soon will set hearts aflutter and bring the whole community into turmoil.
She is attracted to an old flame, Andy (Like Evans) whom she hires to do the garden. However, she takes up with Ben (Dominic Cooper) who is a drummer writer with an independent band. This will soon have her clashing with two local girls, Jody and Casey (Jessica Barden and Charlotte Christie) who both have a kind of crush on Ben. To make matters more complicated, Tamara still has a crush on Nicholas and that will soon ignite a whole series of events.
Mr Frears gets the comic timing just right, bringing an element of bawdiness while at the same time balancing this with the right dose of black humour. The one-liners are sharp and fill out any void in the script. The casting choice was a very good one and the supporting cast really fill out this film perfectly. The ones to stand out most are a sweet Bill Camp as an academic with a heart, Susan Wooldridge as an always-jacketed gentlewoman and Bronagh Gallagher as a lesbian crime novelist.
Gemma Arterton really has a strong physical presence and Mr Frears capitalises on it. Her arrival as she climbs over a fence wearing a pair of denim shorts is enough to immediately leave her imprint on the audience and on the characters that are looking at her and forming their ideas about this girl.
Another highlight of the film is Roger Allam who as lecherous Nicholas really has a very strong talent for smooth-talking women half his age into his bed. And he really seems to be having fun in his role. Tamsin Greig as the cuckolded wife also gives a very strong performance and will evince a lot of sympathy form the audience.
The film derives a lot of humour from the idea of life in the countryside where everyone’s focus is on their neighbours – their successes and, even more so, their failures – and sex in general. Tamara Drewe is probably this year’s best British comedy film.