Tamara Drewe provides a showcase for Gemma Arterton but little else. As directed by Stephen Frears TD unwinds as a straight drama, only hinting at the farcical elements that lie beneath the story. The story’s based on a graphic novel of the same name.

Tamara Drewe had a huge aquiline nose as a lass but she returns to her hometown in the Dorset countryside with a nose job and a grown-up body to match her renewed sense of worth. Everybody in the rustic area is a writer, either a known writer, like Roger Allam as Nicholas Hardiment or writers in residence. Drewe herself works as a journalist. Everyone tries to outdo the other regarding their literary output but none can match Hardiment for his fame or his lechery.

Drewe finds herself the center of male attention from most everyone in town, but settles for the affections of rock star on sabbatical Ben Sergeant (Dominic Cooper). Sergeant’s also being stalked, in as friendly a manner as stalking can be interpreted, by two girls who create teen mayhem in the town. This pair manages most of the film’s comedy either through their Greek chorus comments on the other characters or their occasional malicious pranks.

Fans of Arterton should see Tamara Drewe. After all, the American studio films she appears in are C-grade efforts (Prince of Persia, Clash of the Titans) while her work in English films (The Disappearance of Alice Creed, Rock n’ Roller, Three and Out) are quite illustrative of a soon to be sought after actress.

- Michael Bergeron