Tamara
(Lion's Gate Region 1 NTSC DVD)
(2006)
review by Catwalk

There’s nothing new or revolutionary about Tamara’s plot, characters or scenery. There’s a formula for the story that’s been used with only minor changes in the past fifteen years. There’s a good chance viewers could instantly replace any character in the film with one they’ve seen before or even written themselves. Still, Tamara had enough going for it in the presentation and flavor to make it a fun view and a good time.

In a nutshell, the frumpy Tamara (Dewan) is mocked and disliked by everyone in her class at Generic High School. She dabbles in witchcraft to try and find a way to deal with the pains of her school life, abusive father and unanswered crush on English teacher, Mr. Natolly (Marsden). When Tamara’s editorial about the jocks doing steroids is published in the school paper, two of the most cliché jockular characters of all time decide to play a trick on her.

Gathering the nerdy library aide (needed for his video camera), the “what the hell is this guy doing in the film” surfer guy and his pure-hearted girlfriend Chloe (Stuart), and the typical jock’s squeeze, Kisha (Melissa Elias), they set up shop in a local hotel. Tamara falls for the joke, an alleged rendevous with Mr. Natolly, and in the skirmish and panic which follows, she’s accidentally killed.

The problem is, Tamara’s been dabbling in witchcraft, and none of the ruffians mentioned above bothered to read paragraph two, or the box cover, either of which would give them a hint that all hell is about to break loose. Tamara arrives at school Monday in full bombshell mode (which is Dewar’s greatest strength in the film) and begins to influence the frantic band of manslaughterists into some very twisted situations.

As stated, nothing so far should strike viewers as ground-breakingly original, however the clever suicide scenes and methods of payback Tamara initiates in Act Two are the greatest amusement factor in the film. There are enough quick jumps and “my girl had to cover her eyes” moments in the middle of the movie to make it entertaining.

Unfortunately, with some bad edits and questionable situations, the ending doesn’t deliver a home run ball, merely a satisfactory wrap-up as predictable as most of the plot. Still, the pacing was excellent, and the producers show an awareness of the movie’s formula and its limitations, making Tamara wrap up in just about 90 minutes. This keeps things moving along nicely.

While not winning any Oscars, Tamara contains enough horrific and sexual eye candy keep viewers along for the ride. The film also drives home two very essential morales; 1. don’t kill witches who may come back as smoking hot bombshells, and 2. when they do, don’t keep pointing it out, or you’ll be elbowed in the ribs repeatedly by your girlfriend.

The DVD features were few and far between, containing only trailers, subtitles and a Writer and Directory Commentary. Coming from Lion’s Gate, the expectation for at least deleted scenes and actor commentary were met with no results.