Tamara Drewe

One of the best comic adaptations you've not heard of

In 2010, comic book movies were already big, but it would be two years before the first Avengers movie would hit theaters and they became an unstoppable force. So it was an ideal time for Tamara Drewe, a movie that was, and still very much is, an exception to the rules of the genre.

Frears and screenwriter Moira Buffini make a funny, touching and witty film out of Posy Simmonds' marvellous cartoon strip that spatchcocks awful middle-class country life. Gemma Arterton is a delightful Tamara Drewe, the young woman who returns to her native west country village with a nose-job, micro-shorts and an ambition to write a chicklit blockbuster; she understandably stirs up the passions of ex-boyfriend Andy (Luke Evans), pop star Ben (Dominic Cooper) and slimy middle-aged philanderer Nicholas (Roger Allam).

An early, if unseasonal, terrestrial premiere for this sunny 2010 comedy starring Gemma Arterton as the titular journalist who turns all the boys' heads when she returns to the Dorset village she grew up in, sporting a new nose and some very short shorts. Based on The Guardian's comic strip by Posy Simmonds, the country house farce is fluffy and charming rather than bawdy but you could warm your hands on the perfect summer scenery.

Gemma Arterton, in saucy hotpants, returns to her native Dorset village to wreak emotional havoc on the local menfolk, in Stephen Frears's take on Posy Simmons's update of Far From the Madding Crowd. It's diverting enough as tragi-comic Aga-saga soap, but Tamsin Greig is superb as a novelist's wife who runs a writers' rural retreat.

Tamara Drewe script in script archive

We're very excited to have been able to add the script for feature film, Tamara Drewe, to our script archive.

Tamara Drewe Movie Review

Many people, wanting to escape the realities of their lives, wish they can spontaneously go away on a peaceful vacation or retreat. While not everyone can just drop everything and jet off to a relaxing destination, Sony Pictures found a way to take people away from their troubles, even if it's just for a little less than two hours.

Culture Club: Tamara Drewe (15)

Readers review this week's film.

Location Location Location - Frears go mad in Dorset

If these last, late summer weeks have seen west Dorset experience a surge in visits from French tourists we can thank Stephen Frears for it.

Review: Tamara Drewe

Tamara Drewe began life as a comic strip in the Guardian and, by golly, it shows.

Frolics, romance and a VERY frothy farce

Thomas Hardy was not exactly a merry old soul, but this film turns his period romance Far From The Madding Crowd into a sexy frolic that's like a frenzied coupling of Richard Curtis and Jilly Cooper.