Tamara Drewe 2010

A.O. Scott, New York Times: It does not insult the intelligence of the audience -- on the contrary, it flatters the viewer's sense of sophistication without being at all esoteric or difficult -- and it is refreshingly candid about sex. Read more

Keith Uhlich, Time Out: Strikingly picturesque locations and a terrific ensemble cast help this tonally inconsistent adaptation of Posy Simmonds's comic series pass by with relative ease, though it leaves a very peculiar aftertaste. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Tamara Drewe makes a strong case for rhinoplasty, and a stronger one for the pleasures of comedy. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: The film lacks Frears' usual master touch; it often feels flat and self-conscious, in a way that the book never does. Read more

Noel Murray, AV Club: While Tamara Drew is enjoyable throughout -- right up to its loony, loony ending -- it's more than a little scattered. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Tamara Drewe is a frolic that keeps tripping over its own gorgeous feet. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: This screen adaptation by director Stephen Frears successfully re-creates the strip's pastoral tone and cheeky humor. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Here and there, tentatively, Frears and his design team approximate the pictorial flourishes of the graphic novel. But the ensemble appears to be guessing, much of the time, at a proper performance pitch. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Erotic comedies are often attempted but rarely realized. Tamara Drewe is proof that sexy and funny need not be mutually exclusive. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: There's a whiff of desperation behind the comic romp Tamara Drewe that gives it some unexpected sting. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: It makes a few quirky nods toward artistry, but it's really just a glib concoction. Read more

Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times: The whole thing more a vibrant mess than something comically disarming. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: There's not even any biting satire on social mores or anything else. The laughs are as broad as the scenery is picturesque. The characters are types but the whole experience is agreeable enough. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: A real old-fashioned crowd-pleaser. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: While no one would celebrate Tamara Drewe as a great movie, it is a reliable dispenser of visual and erotic pleasures. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Tamara Drewe is one of those British comedies in which, one way or another, we envy all of the characters -- even, briefly, the one run over by stampeding cows. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Don't let the English accents fool you - the characters are as thin as cartoons. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Go through your mental checklist of what you want in a romantic comedy-drama: novel plotting, characters to care about, witty dialogue, bull's-eye casting, nimble direction, green and pleasant locales, a lack of falling-in-love montages. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "Tamara Drewe" is a wickedly smart hybrid of a literary roundelay and a postfeminist manifesto. Read more

Kate Taylor, Globe and Mail: You know where you're going in territory that's actually more Jane Austen than Hardy, but Frears makes the most of the many bumps and twists. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Caught midway between literary genres, the film lacks the literary sheen of Hardy and the darker comic impulses of Simmonds. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: I surrendered midway through to the film, to the wayward torque of its plot and the near-perfect pitch of its acting ensemble. Read more

Wally Hammond, Time Out: The dullness of British mainstream cinema is epitomised by this Stephen Frears -- didn't he used to be an auteur? -- adaptation of Posy Simmonds's gently teasing 2005-2007 Guardian comic strip about rural goings-on. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: A bucolic romp set in a strikingly picturesque spot in England's Dorset County, it has its moments of charm. But the clever comedy it promises never really materializes. Read more

Leslie Felperin, Variety: The return of a native-born femme to the rural village she grew up in stirs up dormant longings, resulting in romantic muddle and stampeding cows in amusing social comedy Tamara Drewe. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: As directed by old pro Stephen Frears, the film is an ensemble affair, akin to a weekend-party comedy. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: Tamara Drewe is one in a million. Read more