Tamara Drewe
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: October 8, 2010 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
64
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 28 Critic Reviews
Positive:
20
Mixed:
8
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertOct 20, 2010
Tamara Drewe is one of those British comedies in which, one way or another, we envy all of the characters. Read full review
85
NPRElla TaylorOct 20, 2010
On its own terms, Tamara Drewe is a hugely exuberant black comedy, unfolding over four scenic seasons at a writer's retreat set in a rose-strewn village overrun by city bobos in search of authenticity. Read full review
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerOct 20, 2010
Erotic comedies are often attempted but rarely realized. Tamara Drewe is proof that sexy and funny need not be mutually exclusive. Read full review
80
Boxoffice MagazineRichard MoweOct 20, 2010
The deadly sins of envy, lust and salacious gossip in deepest rural England provide the motor for Stephen Frears's black romp, featuring vivacious former Bond girl Gemma Arterton. Read full review
80
EmpireAngie ErrigoOct 20, 2010
Think The Archers with a sprinkling of trendier folk and a lot more shagging. Very intelligently funny, with stellar performances. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterRay BennettOct 20, 2010
Jaunty and entertaining. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsDec 17, 2010
It's a tart trifle, but in the madding crowd of year-end movies, Tamara Drewe rocks. Read full review
75
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallDec 8, 2010
The cast is delightful top to bottom, although Arterton's role is chiefly defined by seductive smiles and the rise of her cut-off shorts. Allam and Cooper are standouts, creating hormonally despicable characters getting more of Tamara's attention than they deserve. Read full review
75
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanOct 21, 2010
In addition to all the rollicking, ribald humor, Tamara Drewe also has a couple of flashes of darkly comic violence. In a literary sense, it's poetic justice, really. Punishment meted out for bad behavior. Read full review
75
New York PostLou LumenickOct 20, 2010
A real old-fashioned crowd-pleaser. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayOct 20, 2010
While Tamara Drew is enjoyable throughout-right up to its loony, loony ending-it's more than a little scattered. Read full review
70
TimeRichard CorlissOct 20, 2010
So here's my second and final verdict on the movie: it's as captivating as its heroine. Read full review
70
Village VoiceJ. HobermanOct 20, 2010
Frears might have accelerated the comic pacing, but the story is a good one and events come nicely to a boil. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternOct 20, 2010
The story's literary underpinnings are hilariously represented by the denizens of a seedy writers' retreat situated near Tamara's old house, which she has come back to reclaim after her mother's death. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJ.R. JonesOct 20, 2010
Thomas Hardy it's not, but as far as middlebrow British romances go, better this than "Love Actually." Read full review
70
VarietyLeslie FelperinOct 20, 2010
Adapted from a comicstrip-turned-graphic novel by Posy Simmonds, which was itself based on Thomas Hardy's "Far From the Madding Crowd," picture represents a satirical but soft-biting swipe at contempo middle-class mores among Blighty's chattering countryside classes. Read full review
65
MovielineStephanie ZacharekOct 20, 2010
Most of Stephen Frears' Tamara Drewe is so breezily entertaining, and so bracingly clear-eyed about what total pains in the asses writers can be, that its final 15 minutes feel like an all-wrong slap in the face. Read full review
63
USA TodayClaudia PuigOct 21, 2010
Tamara Drewe is so light, it's almost pure froth. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsOct 21, 2010
It's easy to watch. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy BurrOct 20, 2010
A frolic that keeps tripping over its own gorgeous feet. Read full review
60
Time OutKeith UhlichOct 20, 2010
Strikingly picturesque locations and a terrific ensemble cast help this tonally inconsistent adaptation of Posy Simmonds's comic series pass by with relative ease, though it leaves a very peculiar aftertaste. Read full review
50
Orlando SentinelRoger MooreDec 8, 2010
While we may ogle Tamara, blush at her charms and revel in her world, in the end Tarama Drewe is just a bit of Brit tease that doesn't come off. Read full review
50
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottDec 7, 2010
If there's a breath of fresh air in it all, it's in the form of the young actress Jessica Barden playing a smoking, swearing, Tom Sawyer-flavored teenage delinquent determined to add some life to her excruciatingly boring rural existence. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleOct 20, 2010
It all leaves "Drewe" and its often jarring turns of motivation and tone - feeling haphazard and cartoony, and the whole thing more a vibrant mess than something comically disarming. Read full review
50
The New York TimesA.O. ScottOct 20, 2010
There is something shallow and cautious about this film, which strains to maintain a glib, cheery demeanor that is not always appropriate to the details of the story. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleOct 20, 2010
The tone is both satiric and serious, zany but heartfelt, and for a while - maybe 20 minutes - all seems well. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanOct 20, 2010
This rotely cheeky, Anglo-plastic adultery comedy is set in the golden-green English countryside, and it makes a few quirky nods toward artistry, but it's really just a glib concoction. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanOct 20, 2010
The book itself is an easy read -- conveniently enough, it shouldn't take you more than two hours. So you might want to skip the discordant copy, and use that time to discover the real thing. Read full review
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