Far from advertised 'lush, poetic language,' the film's dialogue is pancake flat, including verbal sparring.
Loss of a Teardrop Diamond (2009)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:10
Fresh:4
Rotten:6
Average Rating:5.1/10
Rated: PG-13 [See Full Rating] for some sexuality and drug content.
Runtime: 1 hr 42 mins
Genre: Dramas
Theatrical Release:Dec 30, 2009 Limited
Synopsis:
THE LOSS OF A TEARDROP DIAMOND is a new drama based on a recently rediscovered original screenplay by legendary writer Tennessee Williams. Starring Bryce Dallas Howard and Chris Evans, the Paladin...
THE LOSS OF A TEARDROP DIAMOND is a new drama based on a recently rediscovered original screenplay by legendary writer Tennessee Williams. Starring Bryce Dallas Howard and Chris Evans, the Paladin release will open in New York and Los Angeles in late December, with expansion to major markets following in early 2010. Academy Award-winner Ellen Burstyn, Academy Award-nominee Ann-Margret, Mamie Gummer, and Will Patton co-star in the film which was directed by award-winning short filmmaker and stage and screen actress Jodie Markell, in her feature debut.
Widely considered the most important American playwright of the post-WWII, era, Williams wrote the TEARDROP DIAMOND screenplay at the height of his late-1950’s heyday, amid such classic plays, (which themselves were adapted into classic films), as “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” “Suddenly, Last Summer,” “Sweet Bird of Youth,” and “Orpheus Descending.” Set in the Roaring Twenties in Williams’ (and Markell’s) home town of Memphis, the film tells the story of Fisher Willow (Howard) a headstrong young heiress who chafes under the constraints of proper Southern society, and who rebels by asking the impoverished but handsome son of her father’s caretaker, Jimmy Dobyne (Evans), to escort her to the major social events of the season. The relationship is purely a business arrangement at the outset, with Fisher paying for Jimmy’s time and attention, but when she discovers that she really loves him, she finds it impossible to re-write the rules and earn the affection she tried to buy. Howard’s ability to evoke the dueling strength and fragility of this quintessential Williams heroine, along with her stunning mastery of his lush, poetic language, firmly establish her as one of the best actresses of her generation, and place her Fisher Willow in a pantheon of performances that includes Vivien Leigh’s Blanche DuBois, Elizabeth Taylor’s Maggie the Cat, Anna Magnani’s Serafina delle Rose, and Geraldine Page’s Alexandra Del Lago. --© Paladin
[More]
Starring: Bryce Dallas Howard, Chris Evans, Will Patton, Ann-Margret Olsson
Starring: Bryce Dallas Howard, Chris Evans, Will Patton, Ann-Margret Olsson, Ellen Burstyn
Director: Jodie Markell
Director: Jodie Markell
Studio: Lightning Entertainment
Reviews for Loss of a Teardrop Diamond
It's not just that director Jodie Markell is no Kazan (though really, who is?) or that the dreary, dully handsome Chris Evans -- even playing a blank-slate beau hunk seems beyond his capabilities -- is the anti-Dean.
Any or all of this might have been interesting in the right hands, but actress-turned-director Jodie Markell keeps the proceedings so sluggish and somniferous that I felt like I had swallowed a handful of Addie's medication.
With an ending as lovely as her attractive leads, Loss of a Teardrop Diamond is a Golden Age Hollywood-inspired nostalgia trip, but one worth taking.
Actress-cum-director Jodie Marshall brings a studied adaptation of Tennessee Williams unpublished and unproduced screenplay that lays bare the material's less than cinematic trappings.
The long-delayed results don't make a great case for having dusted it off.
This is minor Tennessee Williams, but times are hard. I guess minor Tennessee Williams is better than no Tennessee Williams at all.
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