Good acting, boring film. Shallow main character, almost everyone was unlikeable with the exception of Beth, Glen and Jody. Comedy was repetitive and old, just a real dull feature.

"Ever so charming...with some satirical sap to its characterizations."

Watchable

What is this supposed to be? A comedy? Where are the laughs? A drama? Then why does nothing of any consequence happen for 110 minutes? It's not even an interesting character piece because everyone in the film is about as deep as a pygmy's paddling pool - the biggest surprise of all being that the title character is the shallowest one of the lot.

Thanks to the great deal of interesting, smart and insightful characters, I was always involved in some way. Even though the eponymous character left me with indifference, the other people make up for that. They're full of life, stay consistent and because they're all quite intelligent, they say things that are worth listening to. It's not an amazing film, and unless you like British humor a great deal, it's not necessarily worth your time, but I can't deny that I enjoyed my time spent with it.

It's ludicrous and the plot relies too much on deux-ex-machina-driven twists, but the performances and the always reliable light tone provided by Frears make it enjoyable enough.

This should be, but is sadly not, 'Midsomer Murders meets Dangerous Liaisons'

Mild disappointment. Usually Brits don't have so mediocre plots. Also only actor with true carisma in this movie is R. Allam. Above all I expected more British humour(R).

#11#, story, Gemma A

Enjoyable romp in the glorious English countryside. Not to be taken too seriously, the characters are entertaining even if fairly shallow/cliched but you do end up rooting for good things to happen to some and bad things to happen to others!

"A textbook example of a polished camera trying to camouflage a hollow center." - Fernando F. Croce

This films dizzying array of introductions leads to a scattered first act, from which the narrative never recovers. However, taken out of context large swathes of the film are quit effective as screwball comedy, especially Barden's young hellion Jody, who, while being a narrative tangent, drives the films most uproarious bits. Overall this film provides an engaging but shallow experience.

Tamara Drewe is one of Stephen Frears' deadlies -- like his awful 2002 Liam -- where his proven skill with actors doesn't overcome a dumb concept.

Quite charming, but never really convincing. It contains too few serious laughs, but I did smile all the way through, if you know that feeling. The strength was in the plot, apart from that childish nose-story, with some great characters surrounding the kind-of-cute Gemma Arterton who isn't a very interesting acress in my book. On top of all this, Tamara Drewe has a nice atmosphere all the way through, and Frears works the camera well to create a special author's paradise.

Cute, drags on, but still worth your time if you in for some of that feel-good stuff.

All fluff and no stuff. Stephen Frears seems to have peaked with The Queen. It's been downhill from there.

Swings wildly from charming to irritating.

After a highly entertaining and clever first hour, the script just gets crazy. And not in a good way at all. They should have just focused on one story and not try to use as many material from the graphic novel as possible.