Tamara Drewe

Cannes (Out of Competition) – It's a case of rural raunch as Gemma Arterton's Tamara returns to her tiny hometown and promptly sends the menfolk into a tizz. Paul Martin takes a country break to find out what all the fuss is about.

Welcome to Ewedown, the “bumhole of nowhere” in the words of 15-year-old resident Jodie. It's the sleepiest of sleepy Dorset towns, where even the arrival of a taxi can generate a frisson of excitement. Which is not to say that Ewedown is entirely closed to visitors. On the contrary, Stonefield Farm is quite the intellectual mecca, with lady of the house Beth having created a retreat of quiet contemplation, where visiting writers can apply the finishing touches to their books. Then there is her husband, celebrated crime novelist Nicholas Hardiment, gregarious host of meetings for enraptured admirers of his dashing detective creation, Inchcombe.

Underneath this seeming idyll, behind the facade of good taste and even better manners, tensions abound. They come in various guises: Nicholas (Roger Allam) habitually cheats on devoted Beth (Tamsin Greig) with younger women impressed by his fame; just-arrived American visitor to Stonefield, Glen (Bill Camp), is wrestling with his dryly academic study of Thomas Hardy; and rugged farmhand Andy (Luke Evans) is barely making ends meet after monetary misfortunes saw him relinquish both his business and the familial home. That home is now held in the name of Drewe, and inheritor Tamara (Gemma Arterton) causes a stir when she arrives back in Ewedown to arrange its sale. Having made a name for herself as a journalist in London, penning confessional columns about her own life, she has also remodeled her looks, with her newly-sleek nose far from the only physical asset to capture the attention of the male residents.

Sitting at the helm of the big-screen Tamara Drewe is director Stephen Frears, a man equally adept at guiding homegrown material such as Prick Up Your Ears and The Queen, and American-set flicks like The Grifters and High Fidelity. This latest outing for Frears most assuredly falls into the former category; the tale of Beth and Tamara's misfortunes at the hands of the wrong men (Nicholas and Dominic Cooper's rock drummer Ben, respectively) being as quintessentially English as a tea morning hosted by Roger Moore.

A familiar blend of charming idiosyncrasy and appalling snobbery is evoked in rib-tickling manner, particularly in the first half hour of the film. For example, the distaste for a poseur that is indelibly imprinted onto the English psyche (usually existing in curious harmony with a cowed deference to wealth and status) manifests itself in the most-heavily trailed scene of Tamara Drewe, which sees the title character reintroducing herself to the people of Ewedown by hopping over the fence and into an in-progress garden party, dressed in scarlet vest-top and denim hotpants. As the film seems to be inviting the male and so-inclined female members of the audience to gawp and gape at the scantily-clad Arterton, one of the female garden party guests tartly remarks of her short shorts, “She's poured herself into those.”

Frears' Tamara Drewe is based on a comic strip by Posy Simmonds which ran in the book review section of The Guardian between 2005 and 2007, and this source strip was itself inspired by late-nineteenth century novel Far From the Madding Crowd, written by Glen's idol and tormentor, Thomas Hardy. That should not imply that the movie incarnation of Tamara Drewe in any way represents a stern intellectual workout, it instead being an attractive comedy that could have come straight from the pen of Alan Ayckbourn.

Strong performances boost the film, with Gemma Arterton acquitting herself well again, hot on the heels of an impressive turn in The Disappearance of Alice Creed. Tamsin Greig tones down the quirkiness that defined her small-screen roles on Black Books and Green Wing, and is pitch-perfect as wronged wife Beth. Best of all though is another British TV comedy alumni, The Thick of It's Roger Allam, as the appalling, irredeemable Nicholas. Milking his awful author character for all the comedic juice he can get out of him, Allam is clearly having a ball, and his simmering rivalry with 'serious' writer Glen is one of the movie's primary treats.

Not everything about the film works, by any means. It is not an especially hip movie, with even Ben's indie band, Swipe, sounding about as rock 'n' roll as Scouting for Girls exchanging knitting patterns at the back of the tour bus. My own feeling is that it will play far better with an older crowd than the Friday night thrill-seekers (I'm pretty sure my mother would love it). Also, the often dim view taken of the English rural middle-classes sometimes leaves the characters slipping towards caricature, while that familiar complaint about a British flick looking like it has been shot with an American audience in mind holds true here – the year-long narrative implausibly evading much in the way of rain, the Dorset locations always appearing postcard immaculate.

Having said all that, Tamara Drewe is a solid comic tale, proving both largely enjoyable and easily-digested.

Rating on a scale of 5 scones baked by Roger Moore: 3

Release date: UK = 10 September, US = TBC
Directed by: Stephen Frears
Written by: Moira Buffini, based on the graphic novel by Posy Simmonds
Cast: Gemma Arterton, Roger Allam, Tamsin Greig, Bill Camp
Rating: TBC
Running time: 109 minutes

Stephen Frears' early short film The Burning is available to view for free on Indie Movies Online for UK users, as well as those based in the US, Australia and Canada.