thenationofartists.com

Reviewed by Elliot V. Kotek
(from the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival)

Directed by: Stephen Frears
Written by: Moira Buffini, based on the graphic novel by Posy Simmonds
Starring: Gemma Arterton, Dominic Cooper, Bill Camp, Roger Allam, Tamsin Greig, Luke Evans, Jessica Barden, Charlotte Christie

True to the seasonal set-up of Posy Simmonds’ graphic novel, “Tamara Drewe” jovially exploits the premise of a former ugly duckling (then nicknamed “Beaker”) returning to the bucolic town of her adolescence. Now a curvaceous siren, Drewe’s journalistic accounts of her cosmetic surgery result in local teens attributing her with a new moniker, “Plastic.”

Drewe’s neighbors live in a fantastic literary construct: a writer’s retreat within which a variety of genre-scribes craft their letters inspired by the lush countryside, the host’s scones and urinating bovines. The owners of the retreat are a serial novelist, Nicholas Hardiment, whose fame for forging crime fiction has been lofted as an excuse for his adulterous ways, and his dutiful wife Beth, on whom the visiting scribblers lean for sound advice and sustenance.

Despite Drewe being burdened with the title of the film, the storyline is very much an ensemble effort, and could even be labeled a French farce, with the doors of the town and its manors swinging open and shut behind various broad-stroke characters, if it weren’t so delightfully British.

The love interests for Drewe are Ben Sergeant (Dominic Cooper – “Mamma Mia,” “The History Boys,” “An Education”), a hilarious and melancholically moody indie-band drummer the likes of whom could only have been more comedically plated by Russell Brand, and Andy Cobb (Luke Evans), who provides the clean-cut local gardener-type held in high regard by the local establishment. An affair with one of the town’s older men rounds out Drewe’s roster of communal chaos.

Adding to the tension is the obsession of lust-filled local teens Jody and Casey for Cooper’s band boy “Ben Sergeant.” The pair stalk his presence in their small town in a manner akin to paparazzi, and with just as much damage. Their presence in the storyline is one of the film’s richest; funny and desperate, it smartly shows the pervasiveness of gutter media that inspires young teens to aspire to fame over success.

Counteracting this romantic rhombus are the shenanigans of Nicholas Hardiment’s oft-wandering ego, and a slow-burning flame on the rise between one of the visiting writers, Glen McCreavy (gut-achingly portrayed by Bill Camp), and Beth Hardiment, the retreat’s mother hen.

While Bill Camp and Jessica Barden (Jody) are the absolute finds, Frears pulls off a feat he executed with 2002′s “Dirty Pretty Things” and 2000′s “High Fidelity”: making multiple stars of his ensemble. Frears enables each character to explore an intricate arc and to steal their scenes from each other and the story. The exception that proves this rule is the minor role of Zoe, an annoying Australian barkeep who plays each syllable of her accent as if it belongs out the back of the Sydney Opera House.

With a premiere date slated of October 8, “Tamara Drewe” is one of the half-dozen TIFF features scheduled to open within weeks of the festival. It is wildly enchanting with truly endearing moments, and is a film that will stand the test of a viewing by the entire family.

Photo courtesy Out Now!