Genres

Visitors Review

geoffgee 2012-05-25 11:50:24

Will take you out of the city (if that's where you live) but you won't be bored

I wasn't sure what to expect when I went in to see this film, but byhalf way through I had been thoroughly drawn in to the several storylines that were unfolding. There is certainly a reasonable amount ofhumour in the film, but there is also a surprising amount ofperceptively observed detail on the confusing nature of humanattraction and desire. There are plenty of original ideas in the scriptwhich held my interest and the dialogue is plentiful, well deliveredand emotionally satisfying. I found the casting and acting to be verywell balanced (meaning each actor/actress carried their appropriateweight for the narrative). All of the characters - in spite of theirflaws in some instances - are nevertheless attractive and highlywatchable. Don't be put off by some of the more negative reviews onhere. This film will take you out of the city (if that's where youlive) into the countryside, but you won't be bored for even a second.Highly recommended.

goldchurch 2012-05-25 01:24:39

charming... and good

Unlike the knockers further down, I really rated this film. Some haveaccused it of being episodic but then all the episodes link up and ...hey thats a plot, isn't it? All the actors are great with the possibleexception of Gemma/Tamara herself and she's more of an eye candy/deviceto bring out the true nature of all the other protagonists anyway. Don't get me wrong, this isn't a Lawrence of Arabia of the Home Countiesand would have arguably been better as a ITV1 mini series with TrevorEve as the feckless middle aged crimewriter, but it is tight, funnyand, I hate to you use the word, NICE. The teenage troublemaking girlsI single out for particular praise. My daughter has friends like that.Hopefully, isn't actually like that herself, but then even if she wasthere would be worse things. Misfits, Skins, a love interest on theInbetweeners...

XavissimuS 2012-05-20 10:08:02

Now, I know who she is! (3 days Screen Marathon)

I had such a peculiar friend that each time, i bought a movies card forus, i finally got to theaters alone and it's a huge load of movies thati had to digest (and review afterward!).This first choice has been easy: The movie is set in the Englishcountryside (a favorite place for my retirement!) and it stars theactress who beckons to my attention (the last Bond movie, the awful"Clash of the titans") but without leaving her identity. Now, i got hername right: Gemma Atterton! I would recommend this movie because it plays brilliantly with a lot ofcharacters. And it's not easy: you got to pay attention to everyone andmanage to tell interesting individual stories in a larger story. It'slike a mini soap opera but told with fun and moral. Every piece isnicely oiled and you witness a real orchestrated chaos.In addition, England is a welcomed change from America or France and iwas surprised how modern that country is. The houses and farms maintaintheir old looks but their interiors are neat, updated. In France, well,in a little town, the people live well, as before the wars: it's old,rustic...I am sure that Stephen King would have rated this movie excellent aswell, because this paradise for writers is exactly what he tells in hisbook "On writing".

yourow 2012-05-20 05:57:09

Disappointing

This was showing at the NFT in London. After the movie, the cast anddirector came on stage for a Q&A. I had no idea what this movie wasgoing to be about other than it was based on a graphic novel by PosySimmonds (whose work I had not seen or read).The beautiful scenery didn't sit well with the unfolding story. Therewas no character that you could like or identify with. You either feltsorry or disgusted by them and that included the main character, TamaraDrewe. I didn't understand why the characters behaved as they did."Delightful" or a "feel good movie" this is not. The main theme of thismovie is that it's not only writers that are "thieves and liars", butthis is the general state of people today.

The_Movie_Cat 2012-05-18 03:45:21

A case of wrongful advertising?

As the film itself would have it, then storytellers (or in this caseadvertising men) are "thieves and liars". It's a shame, because thetrailers and promotional material ahead of this movie's release wouldhave appeared to have harmed it greatly. While the exact budget forTamara Drewe isn't readily available, you'd suspect that it didn'texactly make a fortune for the studio by only taking in around £7.6million worldwide.Tamara Drewe isn't a great film, or a particularly unique one. Yet italso isn't, crucially, the film it's purported to be in the cinemas.While the people who DID pay to see it could rightfully have feltaggrieved that it wasn't a Curtisesque knockabout comedy full of"hilarious" middle class eccentrics, the greater number who didn't goto see it, possibly in the believe that it WAS a Richard Curtis-likemovie, did miss out on something... pretty okay. Or "decent" as anothercharacter in the movie would have it.Gemma Arterton looks stunning in the film, and her sexuality was mademuch of in the trailer. But the central character is, in many ways,Tamsin Greig's broken wife Beth. It'd be equally unfair to call thisfilm "dark", but it's more of a drama with some so-so humorous momentsthan the "laugh riot for the easily amused" that the promotion wouldattest. It's certainly no bleak Ken Loach exploration of the fracturedhuman psyche, but picture if Loach himself had undergone thistreatment... picture Kes, with the scenes where Billy talks aboutfemale and male budgies, or that bit where he shows his scrotum off ashe climbs over the shower. Now picture those clips spliced together,with every single reaction shot in the picture taken out of context andplaced in between. Now imagine a jaunty, catchy pop number - say, LilyAllen's "The Fear" - placed underneath. For the icing on the cake,picture an uptempo US voice-over telling us about "young Billy Casperand his kerazeeeeeeeee kestrel..." It places a whole different tone onevents, doesn't it?No, Tamara Drewe ISN'T up there with Loach works. And no, it's notespecially deep, meaningful or insightful. Hell, it's not evenparticularly worth seeing. But if you do happen to catch it, you mightfind yourself enjoying its inoffensive escapades and musing over thefact that it's not the film you thought it would be.

2012-05-17 10:16:49

Tamara Drewe just not my kind of thin, I guess.

This review is from: Tamara Drewe [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray) When one is laid up sick in bed for several days, what does one do? I watch movies. So a movie based on a graphic novel. The original story was first serialized in the UK newspaper The Guardian starting in 2005 and is a modern retelling of the Thomas Hardy novel Far From the Madding Crowd. In fact Hardy gets quite a bit of discussion at times in the film.I have never read the comic (it has been collected into hard and soft back editions) but was drawn to the film by the cast and a clear and freely admitted bias on my part to give movies from the comics field every chance to win me over. I WANTED to like this film. Really. I like Gemma Arterton (Clash of the Titans)playing the title character and am a fan of Roger Allam (known to comic-to-movie fans as Lewis Prothero from the V for Vendetta film). And I have been a huge fan of Tamsin Greig for years. She brings elegance to everything she does on film. In a few years, her name will be mentioned easily alongside Helen Mirren and Judi Dench.With the cast making me interested, the Director sealed the deal. Stphen Frears (The Queen) is as good as they come. And so, with all these things going for it, I was expecting something at least enjoyable. That was not to be. There are many things to enjoy here, and I will get to those in a bit. The bottom line with this is that I simply didn't find anything in it to feel good about. Not all films are feel good experiences, nor should they be, (Trainspotting anyone?) but when you go in expecting Rom-Com and get downright depressing, that's just a bummer for everyone. I have not ready the original Hardy novel for better than 20 years and cannot claim to be a fan or an expert, but it is clear that the things that work in print do not always translate well to film. The source medium dictates in significant ways, the manner that the audience perceives what they are seeing. In print the human mind brings its own sense of closure to fill in the inevitable gaps in a narrative that cannot be expressed verbally or, in the case of a comic, even visually in static images. This is much like 10 people looking at a great work or "ART" and coming away with 10 different experiences. We each bring ourselves to the event and color it with our own palette. Film is not as much a slave to the audience. At least not modern cineplex fare. We as an audience are rarely asked to step outside of our comfort zone and bring anything of ourselves to the experience, rather it is expected that the film will just wash over us and entertain. I think that is the essential gap here. The subtleties of print are different from those of film and are not always compatible. The result here is no characters that are even a little bit likeable save for the Tamsin Greig character, and even she is more an object of pity than real admiration.OK. Enough of the negative. There are some very nice things here. The look of the film as fantastic. If, after watching this movie, you don't have a need to spend time in the countryside, then you are broken. Gemma Arterton is very good as an ultimately unlikable and even shallow lead, while the rest of the cast does equally well. There is really nothing wrong with this film, provided you are its target audience. I clearly am not in that group. There is not a bad performance here and the script works well given that the film ultimately just seems mean-spirited, but hides it in pretty things.I do believe there is an audience out there for this film that failed to see it in the theater. Hopefully the people out there that will enjoy this movie make the effort to search it out on the just released Blu-ray or DVD, as I feel it deserves to reach a greater audience than it has.

2012-05-16 23:02:54

Modestly entertaining British farce

Another art house flop at the box office, this Stephen Frears ("The Queen") film features Gemma Arterton ("Prince of Persia") in all her sexpot best. She kind of reminds me of Bridget Bardot from the 1950's and 60's. She flirts, she shows off her sexual skills and ultimately does the right thing. The film, set in pastoral England involves a gaggle of writers trying to put pen to paper or computer and publish something. The owner and his wife run the retreat & farm. He is also a relatively famous writer for a series of novels and in spite of his age (50 something) is still a hit with young attractive ladies. But he still loves his wife...uh huh. The farce has a few titters and the byplay between 2 teeny-boppers (watch out for up and coming actress Jessica Barden) and a rock star are pretty funny, but ultimately the comedy and the drama don't seem to match up well. Still, it is a modestly entertaining film.

2012-05-16 13:10:18

Utterly charming and totally British

"Tamara Drewe" is deadly clever comedy of manners with a wickedly British sense of black humor. Post-plastic-surgery, the gorgeous Tamara Drewe comes home to her boring rural village -- ostensibly to fix up and sell her deceased mother's house, but also to show up everyone who was cruel to her when she was a bright, angry teenager with an outsize nose. One of those people was her writer neighbor, a serial adulterer who reigns over the fawning guests at the farm/writer's colony actually run by his devoted and ultra-capable wife. Throw in the hot local handyman, a couple of dangerously bored teenaged girls, the drummer from a punk band, and a mannerless dog. All kinds of trouble ensue. Don't expect any noble characters or heroic actions from this movie; watch it to enjoy the spectacle of people behaving mostly -- but not totally -- badly, and doing it in a generally clever and funny way.

Zsombor Vasvari 2012-05-15 18:11:12

English comedy at its best!

Yesterday I saw the first movie of the year: Tamara Drewe. It wasadvertised as a funny English comedy, and as I like the type, I thoughwe give it a shot. It was a great-great choice! The movie is realEnglish comedy at its best! The plot -as usual in these kind of movies-is nothing special: In an end-of-the-world English village -whichfunctions as writer retreat for unpublished writers searching forinspiration- one day a super-hot next door girl shows up to sell hermother's house, that she inherited. Of course she falls in love withthe village, and there the complications begin: a macho rock starsearching for a girl; two young girls trying to get some adventure; awriter, who is getting some adventure; the local handsome trying to geta clear head; and a bunch of writers trying to put together anoticeable book.Those, who like these kind of films will LOVE it! 9/10

Harry 2012-05-15 09:43:54

Delightful

Had no idea what to expect. Pleasantly surprised by intelligent humor, gorgeous scenery, enjoyable plot. Come on people. Go see it. You won't be sorry.

galahad58-1 2012-05-05 16:23:36

Drewd-ful

This could possible be one of the worse, if not the worse, movie tocome out this past year. The story of the ugly duckling coming homelooking like a princess had it's intent and heart ripped apart by a badproduction, bad direction and a horrible script. Tamara Drewe returnsto town after finding success and having a nose job. You are supposedto care about this woman, but she is nothing more than a shallow slutwho destroys everything and everyone around her. The adulterousneighbor is annoying and a waste of time and effort. Only the Americannovelist looking to find his way has a worthy performance and gives youa character to care about in any way, shape or form. A horrible movie.

Paul-257-230661 2012-05-05 07:51:42

Posy Simmonds Fans: Avoid This

If you liked the Tamara Drewe serialisation in the Guardian or boughtthe graphic novel or are just a fan of Posy Simmonds, prepare to bedisappointed.In the first place, the film is the original work forced into thestraitjacket of "comedy". This means the original ending has beentotally re-written, since teenage girls dying of solvent abuse isn'tsomething that could be played for laughs, not to mention thepossibility of messing up the certification. It also means somecharacters are made into clownish caricatures, principally supposedindie drummer Ben Sergeant whom Dominic Cooper plays as some ridiculousgreaseball rock-n-roller so that we might believe the writers' lastexperience of popular music was going to see David Essex in That'll BeThe Day in 1973. Barden and Christie also overplay the teenageawkwardness of Jody and Casey to the extent that Charlotte Christie attimes seems to lumber about like Frankenstein's Igor, which leads tothe second problem: mis-casting.Gemma Arterton is pretty. Luke Evans is good, Bill Camp is good, theothers are all wrong. See above for Dominic Cooper. Tamsin Greig is toohot to be frumpy fifty-something Beth but Roger Allam not hot enough tobe her philandering husband: he has a face that says "Harrumph" and itshard to believe a queue of younger women are waiting to bed him.Bronagh Gallagher is added as another clown whose Ian Paisley voicedoesn't work among the up themselves novelists.The film is a bimbo. It's not so bad if you want a few giggles withdarling scenery, screwball characters and a pretty actress who looksnice with not much on, but if you actually want an adaptation, stayaway.

2012-04-29 10:01:31

Not everyone's taste, but I enjoyed it! (mostly)

I'll be honest, I really only became interested in watching this film because I think Luke Evans is fantastic. That being said, I thought the British humor was entertaining, and the two teenage girls were a riot. I was bummed when *SPOILER* the dog was shot, when really she should've shot his owner. I was completely satisfied when the cheating writer got his in the end. The downside to the film (for me) was that, by the end, I really didn't like Tamara enough to want her to end up happy, with the 'nice guy'.

fw82 2012-04-28 20:05:45

Nice one

I went to see this film with my wife after it got recommended to mefrom a mate of mine.Nice movie with a brilliant, humorous and sarcastic story line that wassurprisingly refreshing. Convincing actors that come across truthful ina witty plot. Have to admit that British sense of humour is kind of special and mostof the time tongue-in- cheek, especially for German viewers. Saw this one in German, but will definitely try to get the Englishoriginal version someday and watch that, too. Absolutely recommendable if you are looking for great and tastefulentertainment on a Saturday night (out with your gf or wife as well ...)

Tweekums 2012-04-27 21:34:18

A fun updating of a classic tale

I wasn't sure what to expect when I sat down to watch this; I'd readthat it was a comic updating of Thomas Hardy's 'Far From the MaddingCrowd' and was curious to see how it would be done… even though myknowledge of the original is limited to a television adaptation. In aDorset village things are about to change; Tamara Drewe is coming homeand this once ugly duckling has had a nose job and become a beautifulswan who quickly catches the eyes of local men. These include formerboyfriend Andy and married author Nicholas Hardiment, although the manto catch her is visiting rock star Ben Sergeant. The couple are soonengaged to be married but things go wrong when Jody, a jealous school,girl breaks into Tamara's house and sends out an email from Tamara'saccount inviting Ben, Andy and Nicolas to come round to her house andhave sex! As her engagement collapses she falls into the arms of theolder man Nicolas; this relationship doesn't last long though as Jody'sfriend Casey snaps the two of them together and sends it to his wife.As the end approaches the key question is; who will Tamara end up with?She isn't the only person who will get a new man though.I enjoyed this far more than I expected; at first I thought the set uplooked like an episode of 'Midsomer Murders' without the murder… butperhaps that isn't a bad thing! Gemma Arteron was a delight as Tamara;I can understand why the men of the village fell for her; especiallyafter seeing her in hot-pants! Other notable performances came fromRoger Allam who played Nicolas Hardiment, Tamsin Greig who played hiswife Beth and Jessica Barden who played school girl Jody. The story wasfun with quite a few laughs and a good set of characters. Some mightcomplain that it is more televisual rather than cinematic but I didn'tsee that as a problem; I thought the look gave it a pleasantly familiarfeel. The story contains nothing too offensive although some may beoffended by the swearing and the small amount of fairly innocentnudity.

2012-04-27 13:12:19

Fabulous black humor, not a Hollywood romcom

I found this film on a really long flight home from Asia and started watching it because it looked easy on the brain. Imagine my surprise when it turned out to be the best film that I've seen all year! The second surprise came when I read all the mixed Amazon reviews - it seems like half the world hates this, and the other half loves it. To make it easy for you, I think if you like Hollywood style romcoms you will probably hate this, and if you like British black humor, you will probably really like it. This is definitely not a Hollywood romcom. If you want something brainless with a lot of stereotypical characters and a predictable happy ending, then stop reading. It's also not it if you want to be uplifted or intellectually challenged - it's meant to be a social comedy, but the black humor kind, not the kind that offers a serious social critique. There's also lots of dialogue and very little action, and there are no major conclusions, so if you have short attention span and like tidy endings, this is not for you. So, why did I love this film? Well, as many other reviewers wrote, this is a social comedy set in rural England with plenty of British black humour and mediocre, real-to-life characters. Personally, I think this is the film's real charm. It displays life in all its beautiful-green-grass but nothing to do boredom - think Midsomer Murders - while showing all the life's little quirks and absurdities - bit like Amelie or the Secretary. All the characters are kind of likable, but kind of not: the main character, Tamara Drewe, has our sympathy because she grew up ugly and had to deal with all sorts of nastiness as a result, but at the same time she's arrogant and sleeps with people for all the wrong reasons. Her teenage love is likeable for his down to earth views, but despisable for his lack of ambition. The rockstar Tamara's engaged to is a louche character, but one that loves his dog and treats enamored teenage girls with respect. There's the budding writer who is a coward that lets someone die by accident, but who's just a really nice American guy. There are the obnoxious, pathetic, plain and bored teenage girls, but in the end you're sorry for them, 'cause if you lived in that village you would throw eggs at cars, too...Is this real life? YES!! People who are bored, not happy with their lives and otherwise unsatisfied with life do all sorts of stupid things, and that doesn't make them bad. It just shows how absurdly ridiculous, sad and sometimes funny life can be. I think the film shows this to perfection but in a really silly, tongue-in-the-cheek kind of way (e.g. super exaggerated teenagers, Tamara in really short shorts.) In my opinion, the best thing about it is that it doesn't treat the issues seriously but rather pokes fun at the mediocrity of life. Plus the sets were gorgeous and the acting fabulous, particularly from the teenage girls. I lived in England for a long time and I just can't shake the feeling that the film holds up the mirror to British life rather well...

2012-04-26 17:34:38

A very silly movie...

This review is from: Tamara Drewe (DVD) My friend requested I get this movie as her Christmas present last year because she loves it. I watched it with her and have to agree. It is definitely silly, and if you like British comedy you will like this movie.

2012-04-25 22:47:01

Insightful and delightful.

This is a wonderful film by director Stephan Frears, well-paced, well-scripted, well-acted and non-predictable. The movie avoids cliches, builds characters and has them follow their destinies in a charming, humorous and sometimes revealingly gritty story line, bravo!

M. O. 2012-04-25 14:43:05

Elegant

For those who will watch Tamara Drewe expecting a hilarious comedy orsome regular entertainment, will be disappointed. Especially those oneswho do not know that the movie is based on an comic strip with the samename published in British newspaper The Guardian.Tamara Drewe is an interesting movie about relationships betweenpeople. The small village where the story takes place is only aminiature of what happens everywhere in the world.People who don't know each other creating bonds, people who know eachother in relationship crisis, and everyone always talking aboutsomething whether real, imaginary or a lie.Gemma Arteton's character demonstrates depth when proving to be just abeautiful image in a perfectly built face but consumed by hate and fearinside, and so do all the other characters that are never entirely goodor bad. Each one of them have their small parts of good and badintentions and - especially - regrets. So basically, everyone has theirpersonal reasons for acting the way they do however wrong they mayseem.Who is already familiar to Stephen Frears' movies knows his fascinationwith the relationships between people and their nasty psychologicalsides. Tamara Drewe offered him enough material to explore all this ina subtle and elegant way without using clichéd situations at any time.

2012-04-24 16:27:49

Entertaining but Slight

Set in an artist's colony situated near an impossibly droll British village, "Tamara Drewe" examines the way artists & scholars use art & criticism to deflect attention away from their radically unstable & insecure selves. When the sexy title character returns to the neighboring farm to claim her ancestral home, her destabilizing presence inspires the artists to question the state of their artistic/scholarly aims & love lives. The title character is not as interesting as some of the minor characters & the film itself is rather slight when compared to other English social comedies, but what will save the film (for some) is the careful rendering of artist's & scholar's (and other's) obsessions & compulsions. Nice mix of older & younger characters. Beautiful locations.