Tamara Drewe – 2010 | 111 mins | Comedy | Colour

Plot Synopsis

Based on Posy Simmonds’ Guardian comic-strip and beloved graphic novel of the same name, which was itself inspired by Thomas Hardy’s classic Far From the Madding Crowd, this wittily modern take on the romantic English pastoral is a far cry from Hardy’s Wessex. Tamara Drewe’s present-day English countryside is stocked with pompous writers, rich weekenders, bourgeois bohemians and a horny rock star. Director Stephen Frears captures the vibrancy of the source material but this rural hotbed of scandal makes for a shallow and disposable story that has all the hallmarks of Mills and Boon, whilst Gemma Arterton’s title character is surprisingly under-written and less engaging than many of the ensemble cast.

When London journalist Tamara Drewe (Gemma Arterton) sashays back to Ewedown, the bucolic village of her youth, life for the locals is thrown upside down. The quaint village has become the weekend getaway for wealthy Londoners and aspiring writers seeking quiet and inspiration. Famous novelist Nicholas Hardiment (Roger Allam), celebrated for his popular “Doctor Inchcombe” crime series, presides with his wife Beth (Tamsin Greig) over the Stonefield Farm writers’ retreat, where the visiting writers are treated to Beth’s fabulous cooking and Nicholas’s self-regarding pomposities. While Beth is busy as the tireless engine behind the idyllic retreat, Nicholas churns out best-sellers and indulges in extramarital dalliances with younger women. The neighbouring farm, Winnards, was the birthplace and ancestral home of Tamara’s old-flame Andy Cobb (Luke Evans), a handsome son of the soil who works as a gardener and handyman.

Tamara, once an ugly duckling, has been transformed into a devastating sexually-charged beauty with help from plastic surgery on her once large and beaky nose. Tamara has a knack for besotting anyone with her big brown eyes, flirtatious smile, and perfect nose. The only man around, and soon infatuations, jealousies, love affairs and career ambitions collide among the inhabitants of the neighbouring farmsteads.