The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond (2008)

Nice effects though.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Tennessee Williams' 'The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond' is a found screenplay that he never got to put on the stage during his lifetime, so when it was discovered among some papers everyone was ecstatic. This story however, is far from the classics he usually wrote. The character Fisher Willow is a débutante and an heiress, but not the usual conventional ones. She speaks her mind and does as she pleases and cares little of what others think of her, and this should make her lovable to the viewers but it doesn't really. There is a dark side to her, not unlike the dark sides to Blanche Dubois (A Streetcar Named Desire) or Brick Pollitt (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof) from prior Tennessee Williams' plays. Her dark side is more innocent and tender but it is not fully explored or explained. The screenplay doesn't really understand her and so the audience doesn't really understand her. And we as a society tend to dislike things we cannot understand.Her love interest Jimmy Dobyne is equally as ambiguous as she is. He is poor and his father and mother are not (currently) fit parents, or really fit to do anything. Because of this he walks about with the weight of his family burdens on his shoulders but you can't really get a read on him either. He and Fisher are more than likely kindred spirits and it is made apparent that they've interacted before the actual story begins but it is not apparent just how long or how well they know each other. Jimmy thinks Fisher "Too good" for him, but is this just an excuse to not be with her? He doesn't seem interested in her romantically and Fisher doesn't seem to care, knowing that her money can buy her anything she wants, including him.Bryce Dallas Howard tackles the role with a mysticism that delves into the human psyche in a rather private way. You get the feeling that she knows the character inside and out but she won't share that information with us. Her portrayal should have been more obvious or blatant so that we could be right there with her. Chris Evans was spotty and unsure, perhaps because his character was, but again we are not confident that this is the reason. Tennessee Williams' lost script was not lost but put away. It is clear to me that he wasn't finished with the story or with the characters. Some revision was necessary and a goal was needed because currently the story seems to meander about unsure where it is going to take you. That's not to say that the movie isn't good. This is a great draft of a story that promises interesting and lovable characters along with a plot that is both ridiculous and relatable. It is after all the little things that we do or that happen to us that alter our lives. 'The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond' is currently no diamond, but still the rough with which the diamond is made. Not a wholly unpleasant viewing. 6.5/10

This is a very good presentation of a very good story. I have a bit of a love hate feeling for Tennessee Williams. The emotions are so beautiful and raw, and make you truly feel. But the stories are so sad and depressing. Although there is a glimmer of hope, for the most part you feel like the lives of the characters suck and are going to continue to suck, and that change (whether hinted at or imagined by optimistic me) will be hard won.Unlike other types of movie that I like (the rom-com, thrillers, or scifi/fantasy...where all is right in the world in the end) this story is much more realistic. Life gets hard, even for those of us that have it good.SPOILERS I really enjoyed how she recognized that she would always find her social interactions difficult, and outright believes that no one will ever love her. She is a sweet soul, but is so socially inept that she puts everyone off. I can't help but draw a parallel to Bones, where the socially inept Brennan is loved by everyone she works with. Makes a good TV show, but not as realistic. Although perhaps Williams is a bit on the dark side. But those dark and upsetting feelings do occur, and I loved how they were portrayed so beautifully by Howard. Evans did a great job as well. This is the second time I have watched this film, and this time, I really felt a connection to Fisher's character. I think Tennessee William's films are lovely like that, so nuanced, and so many levels on which you can connect depending on your own frame of mind.

When I first heard that Chris Evans was in this film (that and the fact that he would be playing the leading male protagonist) I had my doubts but I am happy to report that I was pleasantly surprised by his performance. He was a revelation in this film, even going as far as to steal Bryce Dallas-Howard's thunder (I did not like her in this, I felt she overdid it as Fisher). The role of Fisher Willow in Tennessee Williams' 'The Loss of a teardrop diamond' is definitely a tough one to essay and for a very long time I've always imagined someone like 1990s Kate Winslet or Romola Garai in the role. All in all, the screenplay was excellent, supporting cast stellar and topped off with impeccable dialogue. I have given the film 6/10 in spite of my rave reviews because I felt that Ms. Howard overdid her acting and accent. She plays a meaner character in 'The Help' but I very much preferred her in that.

Voters and message boarders dissing this movie no doubt want A)a happy ending, or B)inbred southern Gothic genre pulp along the lines of TEXA$ CHAINSAW MASSACRE. Unfortunately for them, Tennessee Williams--who wrote the screenplay for THE LOSS OF A TEARDROP DIAMOND--did not write stories with "happy endings." That is, unless the viewer is one of those sanctimonious self-deluded see-no-evil "silent majority" types who believes Blanche is better off relying on "the kindness of strangers" about to lobotomize her in the nuthouse at the close of A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE. As for southern Gothic pulp fiction, Williams himself was doomed to choke to death on a bottle cap, so why need he make up anything MORE implausible to give sensationalists some jollies? THE LOSS OF A TEARDROP DIAMOND has plenty of pathos to go around, without resorting to voodoo curses or hermaphrodite fortune tellers. Bryce Dallas Howard as Fisher does not need to eat any crappy pies from THE HELP in order to engage the sympathy of any right-minded viewers in her quest for as much normalcy as she can muster. By the movie's close Chris Evans as Jimmy manages to swallow his pride to join her in at least partially escaping the sins of their fathers.