Hammerman Ikon

Hammerman Ikon Film Guide

Tamara Drewe
2010
**
Director: Stephen Frears
Cast: Gemma Arterton, Dominic Cooper, Luke Evans, Tamsin Greig, Roger Allam, Bill Camp, Jessica Barden, Charlotte Christie

Tamara Drewe left the sleepy village of Ewedown as an ugly duckling. Now, some years and one nosejob later, she returns as a sexy columnist who casts a spell on three different men: her old flame, an empty-headed rock musician, and a philandering crime novelist whose farm functions as a writers' resort. This adaptation of Posy Simmonds' comic strip, which was inspired by Thomas Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd, starts as a potentially charming and old-fashioned English country comedy, but it soon becomes clear that it's a complete mess. The comedy parts are not funny, the dramatic parts have no impact, and the stupid ending seems like it was scripted by a different person. What kind of a film is this and what is it about? The dull plot runs on auto-pilot and each cardboard character has a single trait that defines their entire personality. Tamara herself is the most unpleasant and uninteresting person on screen, not helped by Gemma Arterton's wooden performance.