Review of The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond (2008) by Angie H — 11 Sep 2010

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.