Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert

Tamara Drewe is one of those British comedies in which, one way or another, we envy all of the characters.

NPR by Ella Taylor

On its own terms, Tamara Drewe is a hugely exuberant black comedy, unfolding over four scenic seasons at a writer's retreat set in a rose-strewn village overrun by city bobos in search of authenticity.

Christian Science Monitor by Peter Rainer

Erotic comedies are often attempted but rarely realized. Tamara Drewe is proof that sexy and funny need not be mutually exclusive.

The Hollywood Reporter by Ray Bennett

Jaunty and entertaining.

Empire by Angie Errigo

Think The Archers with a sprinkling of trendier folk and a lot more shagging. Very intelligently funny, with stellar performances.

Boxoffice Magazine by Richard Mowe

The deadly sins of envy, lust and salacious gossip in deepest rural England provide the motor for Stephen Frears's black romp, featuring vivacious former Bond girl Gemma Arterton.

The A.V. Club by Noel Murray

While Tamara Drew is enjoyable throughout-right up to its loony, loony ending-it's more than a little scattered.

Tampa Bay Times by Steve Persall

The cast is delightful top to bottom, although Arterton's role is chiefly defined by seductive smiles and the rise of her cut-off shorts. Allam and Cooper are standouts, creating hormonally despicable characters getting more of Tamara's attention than they deserve.

Washington Post by Michael O'Sullivan

In addition to all the rollicking, ribald humor, Tamara Drewe also has a couple of flashes of darkly comic violence. In a literary sense, it's poetic justice, really. Punishment meted out for bad behavior.

New York Post by Lou Lumenick

A real old-fashioned crowd-pleaser.

Chicago Reader by J.R. Jones

Thomas Hardy it's not, but as far as middlebrow British romances go, better this than "Love Actually."

Village Voice by J. Hoberman

Frears might have accelerated the comic pacing, but the story is a good one and events come nicely to a boil.

Variety by Leslie Felperin

Adapted from a comicstrip-turned-graphic novel by Posy Simmonds, which was itself based on Thomas Hardy's "Far From the Madding Crowd," picture represents a satirical but soft-biting swipe at contempo middle-class mores among Blighty's chattering countryside classes.

Movieline by Stephanie Zacharek

Most of Stephen Frears' Tamara Drewe is so breezily entertaining, and so bracingly clear-eyed about what total pains in the asses writers can be, that its final 15 minutes feel like an all-wrong slap in the face.

Time Out by Keith Uhlich

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.

Entertainment Weekly by Owen Gleiberman

This rotely cheeky, Anglo-plastic adultery comedy is set in the golden-green English countryside, and it makes a few quirky nods toward artistry, but it's really just a glib concoction.