Tamara Drewe

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.