Director: Stephen Frears
Screenplay: Moira Buffini
Based On A Graphic Novel By: Posy Simmonds
Producers: Alison Owen, Tracey Seaward, Paul Trijbits
Starring: Gemma Arterton, Roger Allam, Bill Camp, Dominic Cooper, Luke Evans, Tamsin Greig
Year: 2010
Country: UK
BBFC Certification: 15
Duration: 111 min
(2/5)
Riding on strong festival buzz and some decent reviews in the UK, I caught up with Tamara Drewe myself this week. I’m afraid I don’t share the seemingly universal enthusiasm though, to me this was the very definition of overrated.
A quiet rural town in the English countryside includes among it’s inhabitants Nicholas, an author famous for his murder mystery series who, with his long-suffering wife, open their house to other writers as an idyllic retreat. Other than the sleazy hack Nicholas’ philandering which we are introduced to early on, the town and it’s residents enjoy a quiet, pleasant existence. That is until Tamara Drewe shows up. A well-off ex-resident, Tamara comes back initially to sell the family home she’s inherited, but after the glowing reception she receives, mainly due to her stunning new look (post nose-job), she decides to hang around, which stirs up passions amongst the men of the town, particularly old-flame Andy and of course the easily led Nicholas. In the meantime, two jealous teenagers cause mischief, putting many of the horny residents in trouble.
On paper it’s a traditional English farce and on screen it is too to an extent. The problem I had is that it’s never farcical enough to be anything beyond mildly amusing and it never stretches beyond it’s uninspired roots far enough to transcend them. It’s a very flat film that starts off promisingly enough with a set-up (of the writers’ retreat) I thought would guarantee plenty of witticisms and satire, but never does anything with it. In fact, it never does much with anything. A lot seems to happen in the film, but nothing is ever developed and pretty much all of the characters end up in the same place they started, with few deviations to their paths along the way. This isn’t helped by the fact that there are far too many characters and all are given about equal screen-time. To try and get away with this the film creeps close to the two hour mark, a terrible mistake for something so flimsy. Instead of allowing characters breathing space it turns the audience into clock-watchers. With a reasonable first half hour and an occasionally effective last one, the film has an ungainly mid-section that offers nothing.
What grated me most were the characters though, if you can call them that. Everyone in the film is a caricature, mainly lazy stereotypes of rural Englishmen, plus a painfully forced take on a rock-star. If they really went to town with this and painted them with broad strokes I might have excused this, but the tone isn’t quite right. It certainly never reaches the gravitas of Mike Leigh’s work that starts with a set of caricatures then strips back the layers. That’s not to say all the performances in Tamara Drewe are bad though, it’s more of a writing problem. Roger Allam makes for a slimy ‘villain’ and Bill Camp is likeable in the ‘American abroad’ role. Tamsin Greig impressed me most though delivering a more mature performance than usual, playing Nicholas’ troubled wife. Her warmth helps her plot strand become the most engaging, despite it being the film’s most predictable and her character on the surface being the most dull.
Most of the film is painfully predictable though, even when the poorly structured script stumbles into some of it’s more contrived situations. It brought to mind insipid countryside-set TV shows like Heartbeat far too often when it could have been so much more. Stephen Frears, the director that brought us the underrated Dirty Pretty Things and gems such as High Fidelity and The Grifters should be capable of much better. Only a freak cow-related incident rises the film above bland through most of it’s running time and that’s only a minute-long diversion. All in all I wouldn’t go as far as say the film is terrible, but it’s so flat and uninspired that there’s not a whole lot to recommend. Then again I am in the minority, so if you don’t trust me, go and see for yourself.
I’m seeing this on Monday. It’s not one that I’ve been hugely looking forward to, but I’m hoping it’ll be a pleasant diversion. We’ll see whether I enjoy it more than you did.
Kermode was saying it was a huge hit with the crowds at Canne, but he thought it was only average. I’ll be seeing it in a couple of week regardless, but I can’t say I’m super excited for it.
How was Arterton? I thought she was pretty damn good in Alice Creed.
Funny thing…
During TIFF, Kurt and I were talking about whether or not a crummy ending can sink a memorable film (for the record, we agreed that it shouldn’t take everything down with it). Not long after that conversation, I watched TAMARA DREWE…which led to me to ask myself the opposite.
To wit, can a memorable ending prop up a crummy film? On the whole I wasn’t the biggest fan of TAMARA DREWE. But it’s conclusion is so wonderfully constructed, that I’d almost recommend the whole film just to soak up that moment alone.
Quite a few people have liked it over here, but it just didn’t work for me. I imagine over the pond people might warm to the ‘quaint Englishness’ of it, but being English I hate shit like that.
Arterton was OK, nothing special. Despite being the lead character, she didn’t have a lot to do beyond look pretty and sleep around with everyone.
The ending wasn’t enough for me, I’d lost interest by that point.
David, the charm of the English accent is probably lost on you, huh?
I’d watch the film just for that!
Dang. I Love Frears, and to say that a knock-out ending can elevate a mediocre film. That happens a lot more than a bad ending sinking a good film.
To Wit – The 6th Sense, Repo Men!, Flash Point. I’m sure there are more.
I don’t think I held the ending in quite as high regard as Mad Hatter. It was a nice touch, but its not so strong or clever that it makes you rethink the rest of the film.
And again as I pointed out, a lot of people do like the film, so it might be a case of checking it out for yourself.
@ Kurt… I could fill volumes with band endings dragging down a great film (I believe the example I cited to you was “Most Steven Spielberg films from the last ten years”).
@ David… Indeed, the ending isn’t what I’d call “clever”…but it had a Mousetrap quality to it in terms of how many pieces they had to set in place to get it all to spring the way it does. And you must admit, whether you’re a fan of that ending or not – it sure is memorable!
After seeing it, I largely agree with you, David, though I didn’t dislike it as much as you did. But the script has serious issues in tone and pacing. The most frustrating thing is you can see glimpses of something really good underneath what we actually got, but it’s like they just swept all the potentially good things away because they didn’t trust them, and replaced them with trying-too-hard farce and shrill characters, which ultimately made the film veer wildly back and forth in tone to little purpose. But there were a number of moments I really did like.
Keith, as to Gemma Arterton, I thought she was fine, but her character’s not well-written, so she wasn’t able to do much with what she was given – she had a couple of really good scenes, though, that made me really want to see her in something with some more meat to it. I still need to go back and see Alice Creed, though.
Ouch. Finally saw the trailer for this over the weekend. Looks like yet another one of those safe but shrill movies. I loved The Queen, but this look intolerable. The 55+ crowd will undoubtedly love it.
Thanks Jandy. I’ll be seeing this next weekend, but I am now officially going in with lowered expectations, which may be a good thing.
Alice Creed is definitely worth a watch, I think the three cast members do great job, even though some of the plot is a bit unbelievable and almost silly in parts.
LOVED Alice Creed. Btu I think Arterton was the least of the film (not bad, just playing the part anyone could’ve done). The two leads are what make that movie – especially Marsen.
Yep, Marsen is the man. I thought Arterton was pretty good though, she sold me and I was a bit nervous about her going into it.
Andrew, in addition to the 55+ crowd, Americans who don’t know any actual Brits and are taken in by the faux quirk/charm will likely be all over it, too.
Finally saw this and I liked it more than either of you I guess, though it was not great. It was pretty innocuous, so it would be hard for me to hate it and I actually enjoyed the non-Tamara Drewe storylines more than the stuff focusing on her. The lady I watched this with had a great time.
That little town looked lovely, made me want to rush back to the UK.