Tamara Drewe reviews
Review by on 23 Sep 2010
On the challenge of making film adaptations of literary works, director Stephen Frears noted to an audience on Day Six of the Film Festival, “one aims of course to adapt the spirit of the source” but need not honour steadfastly all details of the earlier work (plot sequence, characterisations, &c). On these terms, Frears’ and screenwriter Moira Buffini’s approach to Posy Simmonds’ TAMARA DREWE still falls somewhat wide of the mark. The film lightens and brightens Simmonds’ masterful graphic novel rather too intensely, retaining the former’s visual sumptuousness and small-town Gossip-Girl plotline but largely purging the guilt, dread, and angst at the heart of Simmonds’ scrupulously fair story. One wonders how Ken Loach’s signature negotiation of social realism and gutting tragic turns might have managed Simmonds’ material. In Frears’ hands, meanwhile, the liaisons, peeping, and breaking-and-entering in which Ewedown’s residents indulge become occasions for sprightly comedy of manners, but hardly for social critique.
Still this is skillful, effective entertainment, with all the astute casting and well-pitched performances that frequently carry Frears’ work. Comic scenes come in a steady stream and are cleverly handled, and the acting on the whole is exceptionally watchable. Roger Allam, no-brainer casting for a sleazebag crime novelist who oozes obnoxious self-satisfaction as he cozies into his twinkly writers’ shed and flirts with festival groupies, does much fine work; so too does Tamsin Grieg as his fussy, cowed wife. And both Gemma Arterton as Tamara (a posh columnist) and Dominic Cooper as Ben (a pouting rockstar) combine egotism and vulnerability in performances that are sexy, bracing, and believable.
Emma Firestone
Still this is skillful, effective entertainment, with all the astute casting and well-pitched performances that frequently carry Frears’ work. Comic scenes come in a steady stream and are cleverly handled, and the acting on the whole is exceptionally watchable. Roger Allam, no-brainer casting for a sleazebag crime novelist who oozes obnoxious self-satisfaction as he cozies into his twinkly writers’ shed and flirts with festival groupies, does much fine work; so too does Tamsin Grieg as his fussy, cowed wife. And both Gemma Arterton as Tamara (a posh columnist) and Dominic Cooper as Ben (a pouting rockstar) combine egotism and vulnerability in performances that are sexy, bracing, and believable.
Emma Firestone
Film details
Tamara Drewe
Director: Stephen Frears
Actor: Gemma Arterton
Actor: Dominic Cooper
Actor: Luke Evans
Actor: Tasmin Greig
Actor: Roger Allam
Actor: Gemma Arterton
Actor: Dominic Cooper
Actor: Luke Evans
Actor: Tasmin Greig
Actor: Roger Allam
United Kingdom, 2010.
111 mins. English
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