Review of Tamara Drewe (2010) by Shiira — 17 Dec 2010

Usually it's chickens, but cows can come home to roost, too. Nicholas(Roger Allam), the philandering husband who runs a writers' retreat with his long-suffering wife Beth(Tasmin Greig), pays the ultimate price for his extra-curricular activities, of all places, the meadow, where peace and quiet is the usual order of the day.

Little did he know that his walk, then talk with Glenn(Bill Camp), an American, would end in comeuppance. Being trampled by cattle was a two-fold process, an outcome due to the unfortunate placement of a trough, after the Thomas Hardy scholar("Far from the Maddening Crowd" serves as the inspiration for the graphic novel by Posy Simmonds) pushes the Brit backwards, leaving him unconscious on the grass during the ensuing roost.

This accidental murderer, a bookworm through and through, had no choice but to defend himself against the encroaching husband, full of piss and vinegar as he admonished Glenn for kissing his wife, even though he takes Beth for granted, like a doormat, realizing much too late what a good thing he had going.

This forgotten woman, the artist's muse, who takes care of all the little things so Nicholas can write without distraction, has to shoulder some of the blame, though, making herself invisible, as she did throughout their entire marriage, by insisting on her own self-abnegating designs.

She mistakenly bought into the idea that her husband was a great man, worthy of blind worship, in which she willfully allowed herself to be complicit toward the liberties Nicholas had felt entitled to take.

All at once, when somebody sends Beth an incriminating photo on her cell phone, she realizes that her love was sick, nothing more than a lifeline which helped foster megalomania and hubris. Tamara Drewe(Gemma Arterton), the other woman, quite pointedly, goes unpunished for her part in the affair, suggesting that the film takes the position of the home-wrecker as victim, a young "girl" seduced by the career lothario.

During Tamara's pre-rhinoplasty phase, back when she was an "ugly duckling"(note: the former Bond girl is still hot; give the girl a fat suit, for starters), Nicholas wouldn't give her the time of day, crushing the teen, nerdy enough to be enamored with an author's somewhat limited fame.

Tamara, considered to be ugly, or rather, severely flawed for the whole of her life, returns home as a sex bomb, but her perfect nose still comes equipped with training wheels. She lacks the supreme confidence of the self-possessed beauty, a woman who knows she has the upper-hand in any encounter with a man.

With her fire-red top and short-shorts, Tamara sure knows how to dress the part, but she's still learning how to own her sexuality, as evidenced by the way Nicholas calls the shot, casting a spell on his prey, when he pays her a social call at home.

The famous novelist is clearly a man who knows his own strength because he knows women; he knows Tamara would be susceptible to his advances. Down deep inside that willowy body of hers, Nicholas senses the remnants of the pretty.

..ugly girl Tamara had perceived herself to be(the big nose didn't stop Andy from shagging her, though). Even now, she needs his validation; this father figure from her past, whom she needs to be with in order to feel truly beautiful.

The drummer of a famous band is one thing, but Nicholas Hardiment; he's an author(hilariously, Jody, as played by Jessica Barden, dismisses the writer as not being "a proper celebrity"), so married or not, Tamara responds to the older man's overtures, because he was her first mirror, the person who determined if she was worthy of receiving love.

The journalist for The Independent doesn't know that she holds the agency, that she's the one holding the mirror now, and should be the seducer, not the seduced. Someday, if her relationship with Andy Cobb(Luke Cobb) doesn't pan out, this knockout will figure it out.

In crime novels, the genre of Nicholas Hardiment's oeuvre, it's the femme fatale who gets punished, but Tamara Drewe is not a femme fatale. Sure, she breaks Beth's heart, but Nicholas breaks it harder, which is why the cows saved its roosting for him, and not her, the novice sexpot.