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Tamara Drewe

Tamara Drewe (2010)

December. 30,2010
|
6.2
|
R
| Comedy Romance

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

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Reviews

Matrixston
2010/12/30

Wow! Such a good movie.

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SpuffyWeb
2010/12/31

Sadly Over-hyped

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Dorathen
2011/01/01

Better Late Then Never

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WillSushyMedia
2011/01/02

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

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cleary-joshua
2011/01/03

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.

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Tweekums
2011/01/04

I wasn't sure what to expect when I sat down to watch this; I'd read that it was a comic updating of Thomas Hardy's 'Far From the Madding Crowd' and was curious to see how it would be done… even though my knowledge of the original is limited to a television adaptation. In a Dorset village things are about to change; Tamara Drewe is coming home and this once ugly duckling has had a nose job and become a beautiful swan who quickly catches the eyes of local men. These include former boyfriend Andy and married author Nicholas Hardiment, although the man to catch her is visiting rock star Ben Sergeant. The couple are soon engaged to be married but things go wrong when Jody, a jealous school, girl breaks into Tamara's house and sends out an email from Tamara's account inviting Ben, Andy and Nicolas to come round to her house and have sex! As her engagement collapses she falls into the arms of the older man Nicolas; this relationship doesn't last long though as Jody's friend Casey snaps the two of them together and sends it to his wife. As the end approaches the key question is; who will Tamara end up with? She isn't the only person who will get a new man though.I enjoyed this far more than I expected; at first I thought the set up looked like an episode of 'Midsomer Murders' without the murder… but perhaps that isn't a bad thing! Gemma Arteron was a delight as Tamara; I can understand why the men of the village fell for her; especially after seeing her in hot-pants! Other notable performances came from Roger Allam who played Nicolas Hardiment, Tamsin Greig who played his wife Beth and Jessica Barden who played school girl Jody. The story was fun with quite a few laughs and a good set of characters. Some might complain that it is more televisual rather than cinematic but I didn't see that as a problem; I thought the look gave it a pleasantly familiar feel. The story contains nothing too offensive although some may be offended by the swearing and the small amount of fairly innocent nudity.

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oz46
2011/01/05

This is pure escapism and the whole cast clearly enjoyed themselves immensely... OK so it's full of stereotypes, says nothing remotely profound about the human condition and the plot is distinctly predictable, but I was left with a smile on my face and a happy feeling at the end when it all turned out OK.Gemma Arterton is always worth a watch and its good to see Tamsin Greig getting a decent part as the downtrodden and long suffering wife. To be honest the excellent ensemble cast never put a foot wrong and the uncredited English countryside with its contradiction of beauty and rural dullness makes a fine back-drop. I never read the Posy Simmonds originals so I care not a jot whether it is true to the serial or not.... this is a fine and entertaining way to spend an evening.The two schoolgirls are terrific and really steal the show....Shame about the dog though......

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Thorsten-Krings
2011/01/06

This is an odd film which ultimately bored me. It was marketed as a comedy which it really isn't although it has its funny moments. Tamara Drewe is a drama about a woman who was un ugly duckling as a girl and now returns as a stunner to her home village. However, this is not your usual quirky British rom com but a film about a woman who has a certain tendency for self destructive behaviour and wants attention from men because her dad left her. That is occasionally painful to watch. Arterton does not really shine in her role as she mostly has a fairly minimalistic approach to acting and ficial expressions (or rather a lack of them) that suggest early Botox treatments. The supporting cast however is great and especially Allam gives a hammy but delightfully sleazy performance. As for the story I found it a very unsatisfactory mix of drama and comedy with the drama being too realistic for the comedy and the comedy too goofy for the serious drama issues. The only really funny moment in the film is literally the last minute when a song is played that suggests that the hapless groupie actually did get her wicked way with the drummer of an indie band. The underlying love story is so obvious that I won't even mention it.

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