Tamara Drewe [DVD]

As most viewers are probably aware the story is a loose updating of Hardy's "Far from the madding crowd" and focuses on the amorous machinations in a small Dorset community that are provoked by the return of Tamara Drewe to her home village from metropolitan London.

I am quite surprised at the relatively low rating for this film by other Amazon users. I found it an extremely funny, gently cruel movie, which touches lightly on some of the more confusing and painful truths of life, love, adultery and desire. In focussing upon the misadventures of folk associated with a writers' retreat in the village the viewer can take some comfort from the thought their schadenfreude is at the expense, for the most part, of a very egocentric and often unpleasent group of individuals. Of course the innocent and sympathetic get hurt in the process: that this truth is clearly put gives an appealing edge to the film and marks it out from the general, forgettable horde of rom-coms.

The cast are excellent but special mention must be made of Jessica Barden and Charlotte Christie who are particularly brilliant as the two bored local schoolgirls who act as a sort of Chorus to the antics of the adults of the village.

This is an enjoyable film but not a remarkable one. Based quite faithfully on Posy Simmonds' 'Guardian' cartoon strip, which eventually became a 'graphic novel', it adapts some elements in Hardy's 'Far from the Madding Crowd' to a modern English rural setting. Tamara returns to the village in which she was brought up to renovate and eventually sell her former home. A kind of voluptuous innocent, she has affairs with Ben Sergeant, a scowling pop guitarist, and Nicholas Hardiment, the fairly loathsome local author (who runs with his unfortunate and much betrayed wife a retreat for aspiring writers). All the while she is idolised by the decent young lad with whom she grew up, Andy Cobb. The guitarist drifts away, the author gets his come-uppance bigtime and all is well at the end.

There are parallels with Hardy in character and situation but not at all in atmosphere. There are moments of genuine pathos in the film, particularly with Hardiment's wife Beth, but it is largely gently humorous, with absurd situations playing off each other to raise a smile. It is always watchable and often funny. On the level of pleasant entertainment, it succeeds.

The film is very well cast and very well made. Gemma Arterton, who has real screen presence, is excellent as Tamara. Roger Allam and Tamsin Greig as the Hardiments are absolutely right for their roles, and indeed Tamsin Greig is one of the big plusses of the film. Bill Camp, Dominic Cooper and Luke Evans are all fine as a kindly American writer, the smouldering guitarist and the decent Gabriel Oak figure. There has to be a special word for Jessica Barden, really first-rate as Jody, a star-struck fifteen-year-old whose adolescent interference sparks some important plot developments. It's well directed by Stephen Frears and the countryside looks just a little to good to be true, which is as it should be in this film.

Recommended? Yes. Should you cancel everything to rush to the cinema to see it? I don't think so ; but it's good.

After a promising start the film meanders off into a whirlwind of plots before wrapping up surprisingly sharply at the end. It is almost as if Frears acknowledged that the film was drifting off into nothing towards the middle and hastily injected a dramatic twist to save it. The cast is good and the acting hard to fault, although I can't shake off the feeling that the film tries to cram in too much and cover too many characters, flitting between all of them which makes it feel a bit more like a TV show than a film. In terms of genre I think it doesn't seem to know whether it wants to be a drama or a comedy and floats somewhere between the two. Ultimately it doesn't quite cut it as a comedy, although there are some amusing, witty lines in there. As far as the "romance" goes, the outcome is entirely predictable and thus a little disappointing.

This is not one of the best I've ever seen, not by a long shot, however the strong, realistic acting and the twist at the end, together with the odd chuckle the film elicits, just about keeps the viewer's attention throughout.