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:

Tamara Drewe

Filming Locations:

England, UK

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$18,604, 10 October 2010

Gross USA:

$560,391

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$11,910,695

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

In addition to being loosely based on a novel by Thomas Hardy, including a character who is writing a book about Hardy, and having a photograph of Hardy prominently displayed in one scene, the location filming was done in Dorset, where most of Hardy's novels are set - "Wessex" being a thinly fictionalized Dorset. The small ad for the writers' retreat that appears at the beginning of the film is also headed with the title of the novel: "Far from the Madding Crowd".

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Goofs

When the two schoolgirls enter Tamara's house using the key under the flowerpot, they leave it in the front door. Yet when Tamara returns to the house a short while later, she is seen getting her own keys out as she walks up the path, and entering the house with them, the first key seemingly gone.

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Quotes

Zoe: How come *she* gets Ben? I've loved him since March.

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Alternate Versions

The version of the film released at the Cannes Film Festival 2010 and in France theatrically and on DVD differs from the theatrical version released worldwide. The differences are the changing of a line in a scene between Jody and Casey in Tamara's bedroom as Jody comments on Tamara being "a lucky c***", instead of "a lucky cow", and also with the inclusion of explanatory captions at the close of the film elaborating on events which take place after the film's timeline:

• FIN
• "Hardy's Aphrodite" by Dr. Glen McCreavy MFA, PhD received rave reviews. It only sold 6,002 copies.
• Tamara Drewe's forthcoming novel (about a writers' retreat) has already been optioned for a movie.
• After a spell in rehab, Ben Sergeant wrote five tracks for his new album, including stellar hit "Jail-Bait Jody".

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Connections

Referenced in Midnight in Paris (2011)

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Soundtracks

Where Are You Now?
Written by Benjamin Todd and Nathan Cooper
Performed by Swipe
Published by Copyright Control

User Reviews

A comedy of affairs

Ewedown is an idyllic, little English countryside village where writers retreat to seek inspiration, and peace and quiet. Or at least it was idyllic until Tamara Drewe returned home.

The stunningly beautiful Gemma Arterton plays Tamara Drewe. Her presence immediately sparks the interest of the local men, and the bored, local teenage girls who are looking for excitement to spice up their mundane town life. She is so sexy that she has her choice of affairs, but as usual, it's always the asshole who gets the girl. Just as it looks like Tamara is going to settle down with the rock and roll drummer Ben (Dominic Cooper) to interrupt the reserved lifestyle of the village, life gets complicated for everybody who wants something with Tamara.

"Tamara Drewe" is a comedy of affairs, complete with foul language, quirky characters and the irreverent British humour. Arterton sparkles as Tamara, but it's less about the characters and more about who will bed who and what will the consequences be? It sometimes seems to forget the age of its audience when it goes for the comedy of teenage girls getting into mischief, but it's also exactly what you would expect for an odd comedy about a group of writers and one hot girl.