Taglines: A comedy about sex, love and a nose job…
Tamara Drewe is a comedy film directed by Stephen Frears. The screenplay was written by Moira Buffini, based on the newspaper comic strip of the same name (which was then re-published as a graphic novel) written by Posy Simmonds. The comic strip which serves as source material was a modern reworking of Thomas Hardy’s nineteenth century novel Far from the Madding Crowd.
The film premiered at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival in May and was released nationwide in France on 14 July 2010. Momentum Pictures released the film in the United Kingdom on 10 September 2010.
Set in Ewedown, a fictitious village in Dorset, England. Tamara Drewe, a young and attractive journalist, returns home with the intention of selling her now-deceased mother’s house which she has inherited. Locals are amazed at the improvement in her appearance after she had a nose job while away. Andy had been interested in her when she was a girl, and when he sees her now it is clear he is attracted.
Across the valley is a neighbour’s house where authors stay to work on their stories, but the husband, Nicholas, keeps having affairs while his wife stays at home providing food and lodging for her patrons. At one point he embarks on an affair with Tamara, after she finishes with boy-band drummer Ben, whose dog Boss enjoys chasing cows.
Andy has been asked by Tamara to work on the house so she can sell it, and he becomes aware of the affairs, as do two local schoolgirls (Jody and Casey) who cause some havoc by throwing eggs at cars and interfering with Tamara’s emails.
Jody ‘loves’ Ben and when he leaves Ewedown after the Tamara affair, Jody uses her wiles to lure him back, where she is found out and told-off. Meanwhile Beth, the jilted housewife running the writers’ retreat, is befriended and then loved by one of her lodgers, and she easily persuades him to stay when her husband Nick is killed in an accident. By this time the true love of Andy and Tamara brings them together, Tamara deciding to stay in Ewedown after all.
Tamara Drewe
Directed by: Stephen Frears
Starring: Gemma Arterton, Dominic Cooper, Luke Evans, Tamsin Greig, Roger Allam, Jessica Barden
Screenplay by: Moira Buffini, Posy Simmonds
Production Design by: Alan MacDonald
Cinematography by: Ben Davis
Film Editing by: Mick Audsley
Set Decoration by: Tina Jones
Costume Design by: Consolata Boyle
Art Direction by: Patrick Rolfe, Christopher Wyatt
Music by: Alexandre Desplat
MPAA Rating: R for language and some sexuality.
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics
Release Date: October 7, 2011
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