After watching the incredibly bleak Girl with the Dragon Tattoo I decided that I was in need of a light and fluffy film, so onto the BBC iPlayer I went and saw Tamara Drewe. Perfect I thought, a romantic comedy of sorts directed by Stephen Frears. I have a soft spot for Frears after hearing John Cusack talking about him on the set of High Fidelty (both an amazing book and film), and he also made Dirty Pretty Things, not quite so funny, but just as good. So, Tamara Drewe, this'll be cheery right? Well kind of.
This film deals with love in many different ways, it looks at teenage infatuation, adult infatuation, marriage, adultery, childhood love coming back, passion taking over etc. However, for a film that deals with matters of the heart, it is very much lacking in any of its own. Tamara Drewe returns back to her home village after moving away when she was younger in order to do up and sell her mums old house. With her she brings her new nose and her new attitude. The premise is that as a young woman she was an 'ugly duckling' not least because she had a large nose. Now she's got rid of it and replaced it with a more conventional one she's getting more male attention than she's used to and doesn't quite seem to know what to do with it. So she decides to sleep with it.
Elsewhere we've got a married couple where the man is utterly detestable, constantly lying to his wife about the affairs he has as well as being a pretentious fool. You've got Andy, who is Tamara's childhood sweetheart who, it seems, is still in love with her. Rockstar Ben provides a bit of pazzazz to this village town after winning over Tamara after just breaking up with his bandmate both romantically and musically. Best of all though are the two 15 year old girls who hang around the bus stop smoking, throwing eggs at cars and generally being pests because, well... because they're bored. They provide most of the laughs in the film and become the most likeable characters in it by the end, despite their massive flaws. Possibly because we all remember being young and so flawed... or possibly because none of the other characters feel like real people.
I mean to say that despite having real names and being in real situations, all the characters feel a little flat, I don't know anything about them and therefore I don't care about them. This is a problem which I feel really lets the film down and send it down from being an enjoyable lazy afternoon film to a forgettable piece of filler.
I wanted to like Tamara Drewe, I really did, but it left me feeling empty and I doubt I'll remember it in a years time. Nevermind.
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