OK, it’s probably not that different from the U.K. trailer we saw a few months ago, but it’s a picture that probably needs a little love so a second go-round won’t kill you.
Here’s the U.S. trailer for Stephen Frears’ graphic novel adaptation “Tamara Drewe” starring Gemma Arterton. An ensemble comedy and a modern take on Thomas Hardy’s “Far From The Madding Crowd,” we saw the film at Cannes, and thought it was a fairly rote Brit comedy, but admittedly it possessed breezy charms and sported a few big laughs. Watching the trailer, our assessment seems spot-on as the film looks diverting and light (not that that’s a bad thing). Here’s the official synopsis:
Based on Posy Simmonds’ beloved graphic novel of the same name (which was itself inspired by Thomas Hardy’s classic Far From the Madding Crowd), this wittily modern take on the romantic English pastorale is a far cry from Hardy’s Wessex. Tamara Drewe’s present-day English countryside-stocked with pompous writers, rich weekenders, bourgeois bohemians, a horny rock star, and a great many Buff Orpington chickens and Belted Galloway cows-is a much funnier place. When Tamara Drewe sashays back to the bucolic village of her youth, life for the locals is thrown tail over teakettle. Tamara-once an ugly duckling-has been transformed into a devastating beauty (with help from plastic surgery). As infatuations, jealousies, love affairs and career ambitions collide among the inhabitants of the neighboring farmsteads, Tamara sets a contemporary comedy of manners into play using the oldest magic in the book-sex appeal.
Starring Gemma Arterton, Roger Allem, Bill Camp, Dominic Cooper, Luke Evans, Tamsin Greig, the film is directed by Stephen Frears (you know him from “The Grifters,” “High Fidelity,” “Dangerous Liaisons,” “The Queen,” possibly “Prick Up Your Ears” if you’re older, and if you like deep cuts the marvelous 1984 hitman drama, “The Hit”), makes its North American premiere at the Toronto Int’l Film Festival in September and hits regular theaters in limited release on October 8.