Running time: 111 mins. Starring: Gemma Arterton, Luke Evans, Dominic Cooper, Roger Allam, Tamsin Greig, Bill Camp, Jessica Barden, Charlotte Christie. Director: Stephen Frears.

A new life in the country is a messy business in Stephen Frears’ rollicking comedy, based on Posy Simmonds’ much-loved graphic novel.

Shot on location in Dorset during an unseasonably hot spell last October, Tamara Drewe chronicles one turbulent year in the life of a young woman struggling to come to terms with the death of her mother.

The people she touches during the grieving process also undergo transformations, gaining the strength to make tough decisions about their personal relationships or pursue deep-rooted obsessions to their catastrophic conclusion.

Gemma Arterton is perfectly cast as London newspaper journalist Tamara, who returns to the cosy village of Ewedown to sell her late mother’s cottage.

Blessed with a cosmetically sculpted new nose and a sense of style that sets her apart from her wellington boot-clad neighbours, Tarama turns heads of the men folk.

She hires her childhood sweetheart to oversee repairs while encouraging lustful glances from a celebrated thriller writer and serial philanderer who treats his wife like a skivvy..

Tempers flare when Tamara begins dating Ben Sergeant (Dominic Cooper), drummer and driving force behind rock band Swipe.

Schoolgirls Jody (Jessica Barden) and Casey (Charlotte Christie), who are obsessive fans of Ben, harbour dreams of stealing the rock God away from Tamara and they will stoop to any depths to get their man.

Bookmarked into four chapters, Tamara Drewe puts a joyful and sometimes darkly humorous spin on Thomas Hardy’s Far From The Madding Crowd, with Arterton’s sexy heroine at the centre of the bed-hopping and intrigue.