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Most helpful customer reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
Lusterless diamond,
By E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews (HALL OF FAME) (TOP 10 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Loss of a Teardrop Diamond (DVD)
"The Loss of a Teadrop Diamond" is being marketed as a "lost" play/screenplay by Tennessee Williams, although it was not so much lost as half-forgotten.And honestly, I'm sure Williams would have preferred that it stay half-forgotten. While Jodie Markell does her best to bring to life a world of Southern mansions, debutantes and 1920s jazz bands, the movie drags like a ballgown train in a mud puddle -- and while Bryce Dallas Howard does a great job with her thin character, Chris Evans is just DREADFUL. To stay in her elderly aunt's good graces (and will), Southern flapper Fisher Willow (Howard) has agreed to debut in the city of Memphis, even though most of the people hate her for something her father did. So she recruits Jimmy Dobyne (Chris Evans), a poor young man with an alcoholic father and insane mother, to be her escort to the various parties. So she buys a tuxedo for him and trots him out every evening. Additionally, she borrows her aunt's teardrop diamond earrings (for herself, not Jimmy!). But when she and Jimmy arrive at a Halloween party, Fisher discovers that one of her earrings is missing -- and when she cluelessly asks if it could have fallen into his pocket, he understandably thinks that she's implying that he stole it. Naturally, the rift between them threatens their budding romance. "The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond" has all the hallmarks of a Tennessee Williams story (booze, drugs, melancholy, the South, madness and a woman half-broken by the world) and probably would have made an excellent short film... say, half an hour or so. But since the actual film is about an hour and a half long, it's a swampy, slow-moving affair with lots of deadwood that should have been cut away. Director Jodie Markell does a pretty good job with the atmosphere -- big half-decayed Southern mansions, misty lakes, luxurious ballrooms and wild places dripping with Spanish moss. Sadly, she sticks closely to the original clunky dialogue -- which is NOT Williams' best or even middling work ("I'm poor, you're poor. And that's hard, 'specially for a beautiful girl. But you got a moral decision to make!"). And as the seemingly endless party grinds slowly by, we're treated to lots of scenes seem to have been inserted just to prop up the sagging storyline (Fisher visiting a paralyzed opium addict... what was this scene for?). Most embarrassing of all is a scene where Fisher chugs some opium-laced "medicine" and takes a trippy walk around the grounds, mumbling about having been in a mental hospital. It also doesn't help that the characters of Fisher and Jimmy are pretty unappealing -- I couldn't muster up enough interest in Fisher to care what happened to her and Jimmy. The saving grace is that Howard is a simply brilliant actress, and she almost distracts us from the fact that Fisher is a greedy, rude, self-absorbed brat, and I couldn't find myself caring about people being mean to her. And Evans just stands around like an upright log, looking confused and drawling in a strained "Suthun" accent. "The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond" has moments of beauty and a brilliant actress, but it feels like a short film was stretched out over an hour and a half. Not Williams' best work.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.1 out of 5 stars (18 customer reviews) 15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Bejeweled Masterwork,
By Brian Morgan - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Loss of a Teardrop Diamond (DVD)
Tennessee Williams is the heart, mind, and voice of the South, and Jodie Markell has made an extraordinarily beautiful film of his screenplay, "The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond." Exquisite in its detail and dramatic force, the director does not shy away from Williams's view of a rotting, decadent, romantic Gothic Southland. And in Bryce Dallas Howard (with alabaster skin and raven-black hair) and Chris Evans, she has possibly the most handsome cinematic-couple since Dame Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift in "A Place in the Sun." This film is a great achievement, not to be missed.
19 of 22 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Among the master playwright's lesser works = still brilliant,
By H. Paul Moon - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Loss of a Teardrop Diamond [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)
I find it strange (or maybe just typical for an antsy media world) that this film was shunned so widely, if not overlooked. Also, there seems to be a recurrent animosity against Bryce Dallas Howard as an actress that I find hard to justify. I can think of few others who are showing such promise at an early age.And as for the screenplay that is the inevitable draw of the film, it certainly falls canonically among Tennessee Williams' lesser works; yet even his lesser works have always carried much magic, and an idiomatic command of poetic elegance that no American writer since has matched. We all know well Blanche's ruminations about paper lanterns as a metaphor for magic in the world; people far smarter and wiser than me have called those words among the most deeply felt ever written in the English language. In this film, Fisher Willow has her moment too, hers more nuanced than the melodramatic flourish of Vivian Leigh's delivery. She pines for the company not of strangers, but of people who have meaning, who aspire to art and creation, and so forth. They are words meant to be heard spoken, rather than spit out in this no-name review on the Internet. So all of that is to say, the best you can do is ignore the shrugging critics and watch this film. It does the legacy of Tennessee Williams justice, it is beautifully shot on a very low budget, and it is a fine performance by a budding actress who absorbs the playwright's intentions elegantly. 12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Stunning period film with timeless appeal!,
By Macdonald - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Loss of a Teardrop Diamond (DVD)
Jodie Markell has created a period piece with timeless appeal! This never-before produced screenplay by Tennessee Williams came to light at the right time and in the right hands. Markell's insightful direction and Bryce Dallas Howard's brilliant performance transport the viewer to 1920's Memphis with its juxtaposition of high-class southern charm, architecture and posh parties to the inner turmoil brought about through the accompanying societal expectations. Howard's portrayal of a "fallen" southern belle, Fisher Willow, is both heartbreaking and breathtaking. The high-value teardrop diamond earring she wears which is lost represents Willow's desperate struggle to hold onto her inheritance at all costs -- monetary and personal. The viewer is seamlessly transported into Willow's world of truth vs. lies, genuine vs. fake, awake vs. asleep... as she is forced to face her past and present demons on the journey of discovering her true self (and true love, ie Chris Evans) in the process. You don't have to be a Tennessee Williams fan to get swept away by this film!
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