Tamara Drewe (2010)

A young newspaper writer returns to her hometown in the English countryside, where her childhood home is being prepped for sale.

Director:

Stephen Frears

Writers:

Posy Simmonds (graphic novel), Moira Buffini (screenplay)

Stars:

Gemma Arterton, Luke Evans, Dominic Cooper

3 wins & 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Gemma Arterton	...	Tamara Drewe
Roger Allam	...	Nicholas Hardiment
Bill Camp	...	Glen McCreavy
Dominic Cooper	...	Ben Sergeant
Luke Evans	...	Andy Cobb
Tamsin Greig	...	Beth Hardiment
Jessica Barden	...	Jody Long
Charlotte Christie	...	Casey Shaw
James Naughtie	...	Interviewer
John Bett	...	Diggory
Josie Taylor	...	Zoe
Bronagh Gallagher	...	Eustacia
Pippa Haywood	...	Tess
Susan Wooldridge	...	Penny Upminster
Amanda Lawrence	...	Mary

Storyline

The Independent journalist Tamara Drewe returns to Dorset, Ewedown, to sell the Winnard Farm that belonged to her deceased mother. Her neighbor Beth Hardiment runs a writers retreat with her unfaithful and womanizer husband Nicholas Hardiment who is a successful writer of Inchcombe adventures and cheats on Beth every now and then with younger women. Tamara was the sweetheart of the handyman Andy Cobb, whose family owned the Winnard Farm but lost it to Tamara's family, and when she sees him, she rekindles her love for him. However, when Tamara travels to interview the unpleasant drummer of the Swipe band Ben Sergeant, he has just found that his girlfriend Fran is having an affair with the other musician Steven Culley and he breaks up with the band. Tamara and Ben have a love affair and Ben moves to Winnard. Meanwhile, Ben's teenager fan Jody Long and her best friend Casey Shaw who are bored in Ewedown feel happy with the presence of Ben in the village. When Ben proposes to Tamara, they...

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Plot Keywords:

scantily clad female | lust | hot pants | underwear | bare butt | 

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Taglines:

A comedy about sex, love and a nose job...

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language and some sexuality

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

10 September 2010 (UK)

Also Known As:

El regreso de Tamara Drewe

Filming Locations:

England, UK

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

£615,553 (United Kingdom), 12 September 2010, Limited Release

Opening Weekend USA:

$18,604, 10 October 2010, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$560,101, 13 March 2011

Company Credits

Production Co:

Ruby Films, BBC Films, Notting Hill Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

107 min 109 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Jessica Barden, who plays Jody, also acted in the movie "Far from the Madding Crowd" which the movie "Tamara Drewe" was loosely based on.

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Goofs

When the two girls are hiding up a tree having let down the tyres on Nicholas's Range Rover, they take a picture of him kissing Tamara. They are a good 15ft off the ground and equally far from the subjects of the picture. However, when the photo is sent to his wife's phone she looks at a picture which is clearly taken at ground level and from a few feet away (or with a very good zoom lens).

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Quotes

Ben Sergeant: What am I, arm candy?
Tamara Drewe: More like arm fungus with that face.

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Alternate Versions

The UK version is edited to obtain a 15 rating, and these changes appear to have been incorporated into all release prints (aside from the French versions mentioned above). Two uses of the 'c' word were removed outright to avoid an 18 rating, leaving only one mouthed use of the word, which was obscured by a sound effect.

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Connections

Version of Far from the Madding Crowd (1909)

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Soundtracks

This Is a Low
Written by Benjamin Todd and Nathan Cooper
Performed by Swipe
Published by Copyright Control

User Reviews

Decent Brit-com

British comedy is a strange creature. There are films that are satirical, such as In the Loop, satirical, like Four Lions, to intelligence and dialogue driven, Withnail and I, and films that aim for low key charm, Calendar Girls. Sometimes a film may try and made a number of these features, like the work of Edgar Wright. Based on a graphic novel by Posy Simmonds, Tamara Drewe hits our screens, with Gemma Arterton's profile continuing to increase.

The village of Ewedown has become a writers retreat, a place for writers to relax, work and chew the fat. Crime novelist Nicholas Hardiment (Roger Allam) and wife Beth (Tasmin Greig) run the place, with an American academic, Glen (Bill Camp (who sounds a lot like William Hurt)) struggling with his book on Thomas Hardy staying with them. In the village two schoolgirls, Jody (Jessica Barden) and Casey (Charlotte Christie) cause havoc and mayhem simply because they are bored. But the village is turned on its head when the attractive journalist Tamara Drewe (Arterton) returns home to sell her out house. She turns heads, including drummer Ben Sergeant (Dominic Cooper), her old frame Andy (Luke Evans) and Nicholas.

Writer Moira Buffini and director Stephen Frears make a film with drama and wit, and some moments of out right laughs. Frears was able to inject some style, like when characters speaking when there are on the phone. The humour of the film relies on number of areas, witty comments and observation, physical violence and visual gags. The schoolgirls offer a lot of comedy because many people can empathies with their situation: rural England is not the most exciting place to grow up as a teenager. Their mischief making and thrills about a star in their village compensates Barden lack of confidence as an actress. It is refreshing to characters that do look their age. Frears and Buffini aim to a make a charming comedy, but with more swearing; so trying to have their cake and eat. The two should have tried to make gone one way or the other. Strangely for a film called Tamara Drewe, there are long periods where she is not on the screen or mentioned. There are plots involving Nicholas wayward eyes and the budding relationship between Glen and Beth: walking the fine line of drama and comedy. Tamara Drewe goes from being pretty serious and hits you with a sudden joke and vice versa: working with effect. Tamara Drewe is very British beast, but Glen the American does offer an outsider view and will allow a non-British audience a point-of-view, with few British swears and slang words being used. There are some issues affecting rural England, like rich city flock buying houses and making villages too expensive to live in and boredom for young people: but it is hardly a political piece.

Whilst some of pacing is a little slow and the film ends up sidetracking at moments, there are strong performances from most of the cast. Atherton shows why she is a raising star, giving Tamara a quick, biting wit. Allam effectively plays a very slimy writer who takes advantage of his wife and he seems to have a nack for playing dislikeable characters (his previous roles have been in V for Vendetta and Speed Racer). Cooper and Evans work well against each other as love rivals for Tamara, with Cooper really understands the part of a pretentious indie musician. Greig too gives a good performance and given her background as a comic actress, she her character is for the most part serious, with moments of witty comments.

Tamara Drewe is more a gently comedy with small jokes and drama and not a out right laugh fest as the promotion will want you to believe.