Film

Newspaper comic goes big screen with ‘Tamara Drewe’

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The Details

Tamara Drewe
Two and a half stars
Gemma Arterton, Roger Allam, Dominic Cooper
Directed by Stephen Frears
Rated R
Beyond the Weekly
Tamara Drewe
IMDb: Tamara Drewe
Rotten Tomatoes: Tamara Drewe

Based on a series of newspaper comic strips collected into a graphic novel, the British comedy Tamara Drewe has the disjointed, episodic feel of a serialized story condensed into a feature film. Gemma Arterton is charming as the title character, who returns to her rural hometown after a sexy makeover (mostly via nose job) that finds her catching the eye of every man in town. Tamara shakes things up in the staid little hamlet, which is home to a writers’ retreat full of repressed intellectuals. She takes up with a debauched rock star (Dominic Cooper) and stirs the loins and hearts of two of her old neighbors. Parts of Tamara Drewe are funny, and director Stephen Frears has experience with dry comedies of manners. But the movie gets lost in too many detours, particularly involving a pair of meddling teenage girls. By the time it wraps up, we’ve lost interest in the outcome.

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