Tamara Drewe is a graphic novel by Posy Simmonds, which was made into a movie by Stephen Frears in 2010.
The title character is a young journalist who comes back to the small Dorset town she grew up in to sell the family house after her mother's death. Once there, her presence upsets a small community of aspiring writers who have gathered for a literary retreat at the house of crime author Nicholas Hardiment. She finds herself caught in a Love Dodecahedron involving her first love, a hot indie drummer, the philandering Hardiment, and two bored teenage girls.
Includes examples of:
- Age Lift: Tamara in the flashback with Nicholas. The graphic novel depicts her as an adult who met Nicholas when she assisted him at one of his book signings; In the movie, Tamara is shown as a schoolgirl with a less-than-subtle Precocious Crush on him.
- All Drummers Are Animals: Lampshaded by Ben Sergeant.Ben: Are you going to ask me what my influences were? Phil Collins? Animal from The Muppets?... What have you heard about drummers? That we're all fucking insane? (Begins to use kitchen implements as an impromptu drum set)
- Ascended Extra: Jody and Casey get more prominent roles in the film adaptation. Their meddling drives the story forward to such an extent that one could say the movie is really about them, and the consequences of their antics on other people's lives.
- Asshole Victim: Nicholas dies horribly, trampled in a cow stampede, but with how much of an unrepentant jerk he is, no one can say it was totally undeserved.
- Bittersweet Ending: The graphic novel. The movie's ending is more upbeat.
- The Casanova: Nicholas Hardiment.
- Chekhov's Gun: The cows.
- Cluster F-Bomb: Ben, in the graphic novel, though it's represented there by **!!!-type words. Less so in the movie, though he can still be fairly foul-mouthed.
- Demoted to Extra: Much of the graphic novel is told from the perspective of Beth, Nicholas's wife, but in the movie she's more of a supporting character.
- Expy: The main characters (with the exception of the three narrators: Beth, Glen and Casey) are Expys of the main characters in Far from the Madding Crowd:
- Tamara Drewe is Bathsheba Everdene.
- Andy Cobb is Gabriel Oak.
- Nicholas Hardiman is William Boldwood.
- Ben Sergeant is Frank Troy.
- Jody Long is Fanny Robin.
- Fanservice: Tamara's ultra-short Daisy Dukes — especially perhaps in the movie, where they featured in the trailer to some effect. Also the post-coital scene in the film, during which Tamara (played by the beautiful Gemma Arterton) appears fully nude, with a shot of her naked rear.
- Fille Fatale: Jody. She even gets a song written about her, "Jail-bait Jody".
- Fourth-Date Marriage: Almost. Ben and Tamara haven't known each other all that long before he proposes to her.
- Gag Nose: Tamara's before she had it surgically redone.
- Gossipy Hens: Jody and Casey as the teenage version.
- Greek Chorus: Provided by Jody and Casey, before they decide to not just watch the action but to interfere with it.
- Hypocrite: Nicholas is an unrepentant philanderer, yet he goes after Glen when he suspects that Beth is having an affair with him.
- Jerkass: In the graphic novel, at least, Nicholas entertains a party by mocking Tamara's column.
- Kavorka Man: Nicholas is a average-looking middle aged man who still manages to attract the interest of numerous women, mainly ones that are much younger than him.
- Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places: Tamara. Other women speculate it's because she grew up fatherless.
- Loony Fan: Jody is a mild example towards Ben, as she tries to manipulate events if only in order to be in the same room as him. Jody gets her wish, but more embarrassingly than she'd hoped, since Ben catches her breaking into Tamara's house and trying on her clothes.
- Loser Protagonist: Glen.Glen: I'm a loser's loser. I'm the loser other losers come to for advice.
- Love Dodecahedron: Hoo boy.
- Nicholas and Beth are married.
- Nicholas cheats on Beth with several women, including Tamara.
- Tamara gets engaged to Ben.
- Jody is obsessed with Ben.
- Ben can't get over his old girlfriend.
- Tamara and Andy were teenage lovers, and there is still something there, especially on Andy's end.
- Andy is also screwing an Australian barmaid.
- A romance develops between Beth and Glen.
- Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: Hinted at, with Beth noting a certain resemblance to Nicholas in Andy and Tamara's baby. She brushes it off.
- Meaningful Name: In the graphic novel, the crime writer's name was Hardiman. One supposes it was changed to Hardiment because one possible meaning of the name is "lies brazenly" in French. Both versions of the name are also, of course, a reference to Thomas Hardy.
- Scrapbook Story: The graphic novel tells the story from multiple first-person recollections and includes such documents as newspaper and magazine clippings.
- Setting Update: Of Far from the Madding Crowd.
- She Is All Grown Up: The last time anyone in Ewedown had seen Tamara, she was an awkward teenager. Coming back as an attractive 25-year-old woman, she gets every man's attention.
- Shirtless Scene: The opening scene displays the ruggedly handsome Andy chopping wood shirtless.
- Shout-Out: The plot is loosely based on Thomas Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd, a reference lampshaded at the beginning of the story.
- Speaking in Panels
- Spared by the Adaptation: Jody, whose graphic novel counterpart accidentally poisons herself by huffing a can of computer cleaner.
- Split Screen: During phone calls and on other occasions.
- Stalker with a Crush: Jody, towards Ben.
- With This Ring: Played straight at first, when Ben proposes to Tamara by giving her a diamond ring. Rapidly subverted in that Ben admits he had initially bought it for his previous girlfriend Fran.
