Roger Allam : Nicholas Hardiment (Excellent acteur)
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Tamara Drewe
10/10
Author: cultfilmfan from Canada
20 January 2011
Tamara Drewe is based upon the graphic novel of the same name by Posy Simmonds. The film takes Thomas Hardy's fourth novel entitled Far from the Madding Crowd, which was written in 1874 and gives it a modern day setting and twist. Just briefly the film deals with a bunch of writers staying in the Dorset village of Ewedown, many because this is where Thomas Hardy was from and at least one of these writers is writing a book about Thomas Hardy. The writers are staying and being hosted by Beth Hardiment and her author husband, Nicholas. Because they live in this tiny village, Beth does most of the work and upkeep of the place and provides meals and clean lodgings to the guests, while Nicholas works on his novels and gets into other trouble which you will see when you see the movie.
Also new in town, or should I say returning is a young woman named Tamara Drewe, who used to live in this village and then disappeared for awhile and now comes back with a new nose job and a body that gathers the attention of most of the men in the village. Some other subplots involve the antics of two teenage school girls who create quite a bit of trouble for the main characters in the film and also a groundskeeper named Andy, who helps Beth take care of her place and who also has always had a bit of a crush on Tamara. I am leaving out most if not all of the juicy details and crises that arrive in the film as to not spoil anything because this film is so involving and captivating that it would be inconsiderate of me to give them away. I personally thought Tamara Drewe was a fantastic film.
I have never read Far from the Madding Crowd on which the film and graphic novel of the film were based, but after doing a bit of research on it, you can definitely see where they shaped the characters and events that happen in this film from that famous novel and how they incorporated it all in here and into a modern day setting with modern day language, people and technology was what I think is a work of genius based on the screenwriter's parts as well as Posy Simmonds graphic novel (which I have not read, but must have been really well done to inspire something this good). Having read and seen a lot of the old period piece British novels and films, I do have to say that this has the style of them, in the sense that it's character study is very well done as is the importance of the location to the story and the supporting characters as well.
The film is called Tamara Drewe, and a lot of the events that go on in the film revolve around her, but to no discredit to the writers or Gemma Arterton's performance, I have to say that Tamara is probably the least interesting character out of the whole bunch. The supporting characters bring so many important things to the film here, whether it be humorous, evil or even mischievous and even some romance and they are so well written and fascinating to watch that I was thoroughly enjoying watching their everyday lives and antics as the film progressed. The acting here is all terrific as well. Everyone does a stellar job, but the performance I really want to single out and draw attention to is Jessica Barden, who in the film plays Jody Long an egocentric and fairly typical teenager who sets major problems for the characters in the film.
She is obnoxious, cruel, full of herself and at the same time is also really funny and her performance is thoroughly enjoyable and entertaining to watch and what the writers and director were trying to convey through this character she portrays beautifully with her performance and more or less steals the show, but the other actors are great too. I loved how involving this film was by drawing you in and keeping your attention and actually giving you characters that you will hate, like and even care for. It is so like an 18th century novel in that way because the characters are all so good here and everything plays out like one of those old books, but the film offers a few twists and modernizations of it's own.
I absolutely loved Tamara Drewe and I would have to call it one of the most overlooked films of 2010, but it is not too late to discover this wonderful film and I hope you the reader will do so. One of my top 10 favourites of 2010.
