I'm a huge fan of Posy Simmonds and I've been following her career for over twenty years. Her graphic novels richly satirize modern British society. When she published "Gemma Bovery" I was astonished by the book's blend of contemporary social observation and commentary on Flaubert's novel Madame Bovary. While "Gemma Bovery" poked fun at artists and ex pat Brits living in northern France, "Tamara Drewe" exposes life in the British countryside, revealing the conflicts between longtime residents and newcomer second homeowners. The tangled love life of the title character exposes as well the ambitions and tensions of writers while paying tribute to the original source, Thomas Hardy's study of country life, Far from the Madding Crowd.
When I heard that "Tamara Drewe" was going to be made into a film I was delighted. If I had any worries about the adaption, they were dispelled by the opening sequences which show academic Glen McCreavy overhearing a fight between celebrity writer Nicholas Broadbent and his long suffering wife Beth. It was just like the installments of the graphic novel in the Guardian newspaper had been brought to life. At the start, the screenplay by Moira Buffini makes a few small changes to the development of the story of the now beautiful Tamara's return to her native village, but the changes make the events more cinematic, and the film is paced effectively. Director Stephen Frears expertly transfers the look of the graphic novel and its humor to the screen. The performances are all outstanding, especially Roger Allam as Nicholas, Tamsin Greig as Beth, and Bill Camp as Glen.
However, the ending isn't as faithful to Simmonds. The graphic novel concludes with two deaths. The first is Nicholas'. The novel shows Tamara expecting him to come to her house after he has his final row with Beth. Nicholas never appears. The visiting writers at his farm find him in the field the next morning. Only later does the novel reveal that Glen had a fight with Nicholas before the cattle stampeded. Furthermore, Glen doesn't kiss Beth in the novel: Nicholas and Glen fight over Glen revealing to Beth that Nicholas didn't leave his previous lover Nadia for the sake of his marriage; Nadia dumped him (Glen learns this when he overhears Nicholas making a begging phone call to his ex). The second death is Jody's. In the novel Jody is found on the same morning dead in her bed, clutching a can of computer cleaner. The verdict of the coroner is that inhaling the cleaner stopped her heart.
Replacing Jody's death with the death of Ben's dog makes the film lighter. My husband thought that the producers might have changed the ending to avoid having an 18 rating and to avoid controversy over substance abuse. But it means that the film has less edge; also, the book powerfully indicates how the boredom and tedium of life in the village for the local teenagers leads not just to mindless pranks and drinking but also tragedy.
I wish that the screenplay hadn't ended so neatly with Beth finding solace with Glen and Ben forming a couple with with Jody, as the song played over the credits suggests. I couldn't see why he would be interested in an underage stalker; it looked more like pure wish fulfillment for her.
Overall I would still recommend the film. However, it is a shame that the movie version of the story has more of the tone of a light farce rather than indicating the sorrow of modern country and celebrity life.
When I heard that "Tamara Drewe" was going to be made into a film I was delighted. If I had any worries about the adaption, they were dispelled by the opening sequences which show academic Glen McCreavy overhearing a fight between celebrity writer Nicholas Broadbent and his long suffering wife Beth. It was just like the installments of the graphic novel in the Guardian newspaper had been brought to life. At the start, the screenplay by Moira Buffini makes a few small changes to the development of the story of the now beautiful Tamara's return to her native village, but the changes make the events more cinematic, and the film is paced effectively. Director Stephen Frears expertly transfers the look of the graphic novel and its humor to the screen. The performances are all outstanding, especially Roger Allam as Nicholas, Tamsin Greig as Beth, and Bill Camp as Glen.
However, the ending isn't as faithful to Simmonds. The graphic novel concludes with two deaths. The first is Nicholas'. The novel shows Tamara expecting him to come to her house after he has his final row with Beth. Nicholas never appears. The visiting writers at his farm find him in the field the next morning. Only later does the novel reveal that Glen had a fight with Nicholas before the cattle stampeded. Furthermore, Glen doesn't kiss Beth in the novel: Nicholas and Glen fight over Glen revealing to Beth that Nicholas didn't leave his previous lover Nadia for the sake of his marriage; Nadia dumped him (Glen learns this when he overhears Nicholas making a begging phone call to his ex). The second death is Jody's. In the novel Jody is found on the same morning dead in her bed, clutching a can of computer cleaner. The verdict of the coroner is that inhaling the cleaner stopped her heart.
Replacing Jody's death with the death of Ben's dog makes the film lighter. My husband thought that the producers might have changed the ending to avoid having an 18 rating and to avoid controversy over substance abuse. But it means that the film has less edge; also, the book powerfully indicates how the boredom and tedium of life in the village for the local teenagers leads not just to mindless pranks and drinking but also tragedy.
I wish that the screenplay hadn't ended so neatly with Beth finding solace with Glen and Ben forming a couple with with Jody, as the song played over the credits suggests. I couldn't see why he would be interested in an underage stalker; it looked more like pure wish fulfillment for her.
Overall I would still recommend the film. However, it is a shame that the movie version of the story has more of the tone of a light farce rather than indicating the sorrow of modern country and celebrity life.