How can you catch the English countryliving in a movie? Nylon reporter Luke Crisell wrote this month:
'The middle classes rarely afforded much screen time. That might well be because they're very boring, especially in the countryside. In the UK, te rural middle classes bumble along picturesque lanes with dry-stone walls, ride horses, read ludicrously boring local newspapers and gossip in the pub. [...] At least, that's the stereotype.'Now Stephen Frears (The Queen) used this stereotype to make the film Tamara Drewe, set in the bucolic, rolling hills of Dorset (the south-west).
Surprisingly it's based on a graphic novel: Tamara Drewe from Posy Simmonds (Mariner/Houghton Mifflin, 2008). It's actually remarkably recognizable and hilarious.
The story takes place over the course of four seasons at a writer's retreat on a farm, where the arrival of hot young columnist Tamara Drewe and her rock star boyfriend disturbs the affairs of the couple that owns the farm, their handyman, a writer who farts around in one of the guest houses, and two of the local high school girls.
Research reveal another unexpected fact. Posy Simonds is not only a woman, she's a true English one as well (how not emancipated of me to think of a man first, and subsequently about a young woman!)
When you're intrigued, just like I am, look at the trailer. Or better, watch the movie, it's real fun.
Welcome to the English countryside ....
