What Do The Critics Say?

"The quintessential British comedy. Dry wit, nimble characterization, and a certain cheekiness; it satirizes the writers in residence by showing how they aspire to achieve status in a literary world that no longer matters. Arterton's getting all the attention, but the real scene-stealer in the movie is Barden as the starstruck girl whose scheme to foist herself on the rock star causes all manner of trouble." Gary Thompson PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS "The latest film from Stephen Frears (The Queen) is a rom-com in the Brit Lit tradition of Bridget Jones's Diary. It's also a murder mystery, like Midsomer Murders, with extra sex. Possibly because Gemma Arterton as Tamara looks so brilliant in a pair of cutaway shorts, and has a determined pout which makes her endearing as well." Julie Rigg ABC RADIO NATIONAL "Thomas Hardy it's not, but as far as middlebrow British romances go, better this than Love Actually. This screen adaptation by director Stephen Frears successfully re-creates the strip's pastoral tone and cheeky humor." J.R. Jones CHICAGO READER "I surrendered midway through to the film, to the wayward torque of its plot and the near-perfect pitch of its acting ensemble. Acutely observed humor vies with the more obvious farce of pratfalls and eggs tossed at car windshields." Richard Corliss TIME MAGAZINE "There's something about the desperation of Jody that gives the film its most uncomfortable and surprising moments. For the versatile Stephen Frears, this is a straightforward assignment. Frears's Tamara Drewe is a British movie pitched somewhere between Thomas Hardy and The Vicar of Dibley, a rural comedy of manners with some darker intimations." Philippa Hawker THE AGE "The story's literary underpinnings are hilariously represented by the denizens of a seedy writers retreat situated near Tamara's old house. I found myself rooting for Tamara to reconnect in the deepest way with handsome Andy. Tamara Drewe makes a strong case for rhinoplasty, and a stronger one for the pleasures of comedy." Joe Morgenstern WALL STREET JOURNAL

"A better Woody Allen movie than Allen's most recent one, Tamara Drewe is a farce in line (if not on par) with Shakespeare's own, as daffy adults fall in and out of love and lust in a bucolic English hamlet. While Tamara is a sex object to many of the men, she’s not just a sex object to the audience, thanks to a lead turn from an actress seemingly tired of playing just another pretty face." William Goss ORLANDO WEEKLY "The cast is delightful, although Arterton's role is defined by seductive smiles and the rise of her cut-off shorts. Tamara Drewe doesn't have a plot, per se, only a series of misadventures as men pursue Tamara and she saucily shoves them away." Steve Persall ST PETERSBURG TIMES "A whiff of desperation behind the comic romp Tamara Drewe that gives it some unexpected sting. Tom Long DETROIT NEWS "While no one would celebrate Tamara Drewe as a great movie, it is a reliable dispenser of visual and erotic pleasures. The film stars delicious Gemma Arterton, who possesses the sexiest overbite since Gene Tierney, as the title figure who drives men wild and women to fits of envy." Carrie Rickey PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER "The sort of film the British do best. A spry, sassy ensemble comedy, set in an idyllic countryside where everything is not quite as mannered as it appears. Spirited, sexy and stacked with laughs: both light and delightfully dark; Tamara Drewe is a must-see modern day period comedy, with smarts." Alan Tynan CONCRETE PLAYGROUND "In addition to all the rollicking, ribald humor, "Tamara Drewe" also has a couple of flashes of darkly comic violence. In a literary sense, it's poetic justice, really. Punishment meted out for bad behavior. Those moments, like the film itself, may not be for everyone. But for anyone with a twisted sense of humor and a taste for the fractured happy ending, they're golden. Tamara Drewe is one in a million." Michael O'Sullivan WASHINGTON POST

The Inside Story Tamara Drewe, the character, has undeniable appeal: but what appealed to Director Stephen Frears about Tamara Drewe the film script and graphic novel? "The script makes me laugh, it’s very, very funny, and very sexy and a very contemporary, modern film. And doing an adaptation of a comic strip is terribly liberating. You can sort of do anything; it frees you up in the most wonderful way. Comic strips are normally Superman, or about superheroes, but this is a comic strip which is also intelligent and about things you recognise. I’ve never made a film like this; I had to completely rethink how I do things." Producer Alison Owen recalls: "I saw the opportunity with Tamara to do an interesting independent film that had great characters, drama, comedy: but intelligent comedy; and also some social comment running through it as well." A distinct element of serendipity surrounded Tamara Drewe’s genesis. "I had been aware of Posy’s work and always loved it," says Alison Owen of the graphic novel that first appeared as a serial in the UK Guardian. "But it was only when Posy’s publishers had the genius idea to publish Tamara as a full graphic novel that I suddenly saw the potential and thought it would be a fantastic movie. I had seen the book that weekend and then on Monday morning I found that literary agent, Anthony Jones, had sent me a copy, obviously having the same idea in mind. He had simultaneously sent a copy to Christine Langan (Creative Director of BBC Films), and then Christine and I bumped into each other at a Marylebone delicatessen, both of us with these big Tamara Drewe books in our little handbags! Christine and I both fell in love with it and the BBC wanted to develop it so that was a very easy set up." Two time BAFTA TV Award winner Frears also fell immediately for the unique charm and challenges of Posy Simmond's graphic novel: "My goodness, I knew it was original. Christine Langan sent it to me, and said, 'I’ve got something for you.' I was flying to New York and I opened the envelope on the plane. I couldn’t believe what I was looking at. It happened like that with The Snapper. You can’t believe what you’ve been sent. Very, very nice!" This serendipity and the vibrancy of the source material continued to be an asset as BAFTA Alexander Korda Award winner Owen (Best British Films, "Elizabeth") started to assemble her team.: "Literally the first writer we sent it to was Moira Buffini and she wanted to do it. The first draft she turned in was wonderful. We did a little bit of tweaking, but pretty much sent that draft to our first choice: Stephen Frears;, who wanted to do it straight away. So it was one of those points where you feel like God is with you, you know, the universe is on your side." "Having had the challenge over the years of putting together many and varied types of productions, it’s very rare and exhilarating when the stars align like this," adds Producer Paul Trijbits who executive produced acclaimed films such as , "The Magdalene Sisters" and "This Is England". A unique selling point and challenge in adapting 'Drewe' was that the film came with a readymade storyboard, in the form of Posy Simmond's original graphic novel. For Cheshire born screenwriter Moira Buffini, this was more help than hindrance: "Visually you’ve got so much there, you just think, 'My goodness, it'’s a film'. She gives you so many clues to the character in her drawings. The characters are really well observed, all of them." Frears (who directed Dame Judi Dench & Bob Hoskins in "Mrs Henderson Presents " too found having Posy Simmonds’ illustrations as a reference point an aid. "It was very, very liberating. Literally there was a storyboard if you chose to think about it like that." "It’s unusual for a designer to have a readymade storyboard, which of course works in my favour and against my better interests," notes regular Frears collaborator, Production Designer Alan Macdonald ("The Edge Of Love"). He notes Frears ("The Queen" & "Cheri") will often say: "Just look at the book," and then sometimes he’ll say, "Just ignore the book!" "You always go back to the source material because in it you find something wonderful," notes Costume Designer Consolata Boyle ("The Other Man"), "but obviously you need the space to interpret it as well because when the actors are cast, they are involved: their shapes, their feelings, their colouring dictate and you work around that as well. But I found the book and the illustrations a wonderful safety net." And for the cast too, the graphic novel posed its own set of challenges. Luke Evans, who plays Andy recalls: "I flicked through it the first time I got the book and immediately knew which character I was. It was quite weird!" For Tamsin Greig, who was cast as Beth Hardiment, the book proved a great help. "It’s brilliant for an actor because it’s like being handed your own storyboard. And Posy Simmonds is so good at those tiny nuances of expression which are really helpful. It’s like having a 3D script, really, you’re coming at it from lots of different visual and physical angles." "I wouldn’t make the film until I’d got the cast," says Frears ("Liam"). He remembers his casting director saying to him, "You’re casting this before you’ve decided to make the film." Frears replied: "Well, what do you think financiers do?!" Nowhere was the casting more crucial than in finding their iconic, titular heroine. "When I met her," says Frears, "Gemma Arterton did immediately remind me of the drawings because she’s: well, she’s so curvy, isn’t she; she’s like a sort of line drawing in her own way. She’s a wonderful girl, warm and funny." And what was his immediate thought? "Oh, I’d like to watch her for ninety minutes. I mean: as simple as that, really." "Tamara has to be super-sexy, intelligent, a little bit lost, somewhat arch, she has to be able to play irony, and yet she has to make the audience feel empathy and want her to get together with the right guy at the end," Owen notes. "Gemma seemed to magnificently embody all these characteristics in one. Stephen simply wouldn’t make the film without her." As for the philandering author Nicholas, as Owen ("The Other Boleyn Girl") recalls: "Stephen felt from the beginning that it would actually be illegal to make this film without casting Roger Allam as Nicholas! I mean that was always just a given." Right from the start, Frears Stephen had said: "Well obviously Roger’s got to play Nicholas." Frears had previously worked with Roger Allam on The Queen: "He’s just wonderful and somehow he’s like a sort of baron. He’s like the wicked villain in a pantomime! He’s just a brilliant actor who hasn’t really ever had a chance in films. Then I found Tamsin. And it was really only when I had those three: Roger, Gemma and Tamsin; that I thought I could make the film." Rounding out the triangle of Tamara’s contrasting love interests are Dominic Cooper ("The History Boys") as rock musician and teen idol Ben Sergeant and Luke Evans (Apollo in "Clash of the Titans") as Andy Cobb, the Hardiments’ faithful handyman. "We had a read-through before I agreed to do it and Dominic was so funny. And the girls just said, 'Oh, no, you mustT cast Dominic Cooper.' All right; whatever you say. I just do what I’m told! He was in Mamma Mia. Teenage girls do kill for him! He’s very, very believable. Luke was harder to find. And he’s: he’s wonderfully sort of rural." Unfamiliar to most audiences will be American character actor Bill Camp. "Two people, one of whom was my son, the other Scott Rudin, said, 'Cast him; he’s the best actor in America.' Literally, I didn’t know who he was, and he hasn’t been in many films, so there isn’t a lot of footage that you can look at," Frears (1990's "The Grifters") notes. "Stonefield is the writers’ retreat run by Nicholas and Beth Hardiment," says Buffini. "But it’s really Beth’s brain child. Nicholas, her husband, is an author of bestselling, rather good crime novels, and Beth’s project in life is nurturing writers." Allam describes his character as "one of those men who feel that he’s got the right to roam, sexually, that that is absolutely his right as what he calls 'a creative mind'. I imagine he’d like to be taken more seriously as a writer. I think this is his nineteenth book and there’s a sense that he is just churning them out, and that he’d like to move on." 2005 RTS Television Award winner Greig says of her character: "Beth runs the retreat and makes it a paradise where writers (and her husband) don’t have to think about feeding themselves or washing themselves." Camp, who played Frank Nitti in "Public Enemies" was cast as Glen McCreavy, a writer with writer's block: "Glen’s in the midst of this Hardy biography which he’s just stifled by, and has come here to this place because it’s just so idyllic, it’s so beautiful. He watches and is fascinated by what he sees and I think that stokes his excitement about being here. I think he finds it all quite titillating, Andy and Tamara and everybody throwing themselves into these romantic machinations." Rock star, Ben Sergeant, is at times thoroughly obnoxious, with his yellow Porsche and metropolitan manners sticking out like a sore thumb in the village. ButCooper has a soft spot for his character: "Even though he’s such a rancid show-off who makes massive mistakes you kind of feel empathy for him because he is so stupid he almost doesn’t realise the effect he has on other people around him. He’s so self obsessed." Jody Long and Casey Shaw, played by newcomers Jessica Barden and Charlotte Christie, are two local schoolgirls, hanging around in the bus stop, smoking spliffs, obsessing about Ben and therefore plotting the downfall of Tamara in any way they can. What started as minor roles seemed to grow and grow the longer production went on. "Posy always thought that they were the key to making it work on film and to give them a bigger voice," Owen explained. "And they gradually grew, which is sort of the role that they have in the strip, in the graphic novel. Their role as a sort of Greek chorus, of being the ones that are commenting on what is happening, and also having their own threaded-through involvement grew in Moira’s take on the script. Moira wanted to involve them more and then Stephen wanted to involve them even more, so their parts were constantly boosted" With the cast in place, the next task was to find the right location. "The biggest challenge was finding Stonefield, the principal location for Nicholas and Beth," says Macdonald ("Kinky Boots"). "The house we found, Limbury, at Salwayash in Dorset is perfect as groundwork to embellish. But I felt it needed softening on the exterior." Costume Designer Consolata Boyle faced her own challenges: "I think contemporary movies are by far the most difficult to costume. Fortunately all of the creative people involved have an overall vision to which we adhere." Composer Alexandre Desplat's ("The King's Speech") job in scoring the film was more to lead the narrative and underwrite the pauses between the action, enabling Frears and editor Audsley ("Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time') to skip from the darker to the lighter moments of the film, rather than to highlight the action. What's It All About?

Stonefield and Winnards are neighboring farms in the lush, lovely West country of England. The farmsteads may be straight out of centuries past, but the setting is decidedly modern as the quaint village of Ewedown has become the weekend getaway for wealthy Londoners and aspiring writers seeking quiet and inspiration. Famous novelist Nicholas Hardiment, celebrated for his popular "Doctor Inchcombe" crime series, presides with his wife Beth 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. High drama livens up the writers’ dinner hour one evening when they overhear a row between Nicholas and Beth, who has discovered his latest infidelity.

The Verdict A British rom/com populated with intriguing characters and a saucy storyline, "Tamara Drewe" is certainly entertaining and made all the better by two teenage girls, Jody and Casey, whose running commentary and teenage idiosyncrasys are both convincing and memorable indeed. While fine performances make this more than entertaining, there are some standouts, including Roger Allam as writer and philanderer Nicholas; Tamsin Greig as his long-suffering wife Beth; Luke Evans as the local hink and connection to Tamara's past; rising star Dominic Cooper as the rock star drummer of the band Swipe; Bill Camp as the in secure American writer Glen McCreavy, and, of course Josie Taylor and Alex Kelly. While Frears picked Arterton because she had all the right ingredients for the main character and looks great in cut-off shorts and a tight tank top, it turns out, according to Arterton and co-star Luke Evans (in an enlightening interview with The Seven Sees Gerrad Hall), he's a real prude when it comes to sex scenes. Lewis says: the bonking scene up against the fridge, "he was like this is too much for an old man. He wanted it over and done with." "Stephen's such a prude," says Arterton. "And he's just like, I just can't believe I'm making my actors do this." When asked why people should see "Tamara Drewe" Arterton replied: "Because it's fresh. Nothing else is ... I've never seen anything like it. It's dark. And it's intelligent as well." "It's heaven. It's funny", says Frears. And you know what? "It certainly is, Stanley". Held back by its limited release, "Tamara Drewe", starring Gemma Arterton is slowly and deservedly gathering critical and audience support. See it before it goes to DVD. It would be a shame to waste its colorful potential on the small screen. SOLID 3 1/2 STARS. The Production Team

Directed by Screenplay Graphic novel Producers Original Music D.O.P. Film Editor Casting Production Design Art Direction Set Decoration Costume Design

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Stephen Frears Moira Buffini Posy Simmonds Alison Owen/Tracey Seaward/Paul Trijbits Alexandre Desplat Ben Davis Mick Audsley Leo Davis Alan Macdonald Christopher Wyatt Tina Jones Consolata Boyle

Who Is Playing Who?

Gemma Arterton Luke Evans Dominic Cooper Roger Allam Tamsin Greig Lola Frears Bill Camp Jessica Barden Charlotte Christie Josie Taylor Alex Kelly John Bett Bronagh Gallagher Pippa Haywood Susan Wooldridge Amanda Lawrence Zahra Ahmadi Cheryl Campbell

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Tamara Drewe Andy Cobb Ben Sergeant Nicholas Hardiment Beth Hardiment Poppy Hardiment Glen McCreavy Jody Long Casey Shaw Zoe Jody's Mum Diggory Eustacia Tess Penny Upminster Mary Nadia Patel Lucetta

Run Time 111 minutes Rated M [AUST] Copyright ©2011 - Roadshow Films - All Rights Reserved ©1999-2011 - The Movie Pages & Impact Internet Services - All Rights Reserved. Protected by Australian & International Copyright, Trademark Laws & Intellectual Property Rights.