Review: 'The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond' Should Have Stayed Buried

Fans of literature and film might hold their collective breaths at the thought of “The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond,” an unproduced Tennessee Williams script that just arrived on the screen decades after the writer’s death. But those fans had better inhale — and fast.

His mastery of dialogue, Southern setting, and female leads made Williams one of cinema’s most enduring voices with films such as “A Streetcar Named Desire” and “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.” At first, the lost script for “The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond” might seem to fit well with those classics with its similar themes and location, but this amateurish drama should have stayed a part of cinema lore.

Though Bryce Dallas Howard has held her own in the otherwise awful thriller “The Village” and the overstuffed “Spider-Man 3,” she falters here as Fisher Willow, a young woman who is hesitant to join polite society as a debutante. Fisher is at once haunted by her father’s sin that took the lives of their neighbors and excited to embrace the freedom of the roaring decade, but she can only obtain her inheritance from her great aunt (Ann-Margret) if she attends the season’s parties in Memphis.

However, going alone is out of the question for the beautiful outsider, and she approaches her family’s handsome employee Jimmy Dobyne (Chris Evans) to be her escort. The sometimes-awkward Fisher does the inevitable and falls for her date, though Jimmy sees Fisher only as a means to improve his flailing family’s fortunes. After weeks of outings, Fisher jeopardizes their relationship by allowing her pride to take over when she drops her rich aunt’s pricey earring.

Previous adaptations of Williams’ work have been directed by Elia Kazan (the intended director for this project), John Huston, and Joseph L. Mankiewicz, but “The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond” arrives from little-known actress and first-time filmmaker Jodie Markell. A more experienced hand might have made this film feel more like a movie and less like a not-fully-realized play, but blame should also fall to the cast. The normally adept Howard feels less like an acclaimed actress and more like a student making her debut in a high-school production of one of the master’s plays. Her performance is overly theatrical (going beyond her character’s dramatic leanings), and her chemistry with costar Evans lacks the steamy Southern heat of previous pairings in Williams’ writing.

Evans deserves praise for expanding beyond the persona he has crafted for sub-par genre fare that hasn’t even impressed the fanboys (I’m looking at you, “Push” and “The Fantastic Four“), but he still has trouble carrying off the dialogue and emotion required for the part of Jimmy. In a small role as Jimmy’s drunk father, Will Patton displays the talent that has made him an important character actor, but he only gets a few minutes of screen time and serves only to give Jimmy an extra push of motivation. The always wonderful Ellen Burstyn appears in a sub-plot as a desperate, bed-bound woman, and she easily hands in the film’s best performance in a frail turn. Despite Burstyn’s efforts, “The Lost of a Teardrop Diamond” — with its meandering plot, unlikable characters, and amateur acting — will likely only hold interest for Williams completists who are searching for more from the late, great writer, regardless of the quality of the product. [C-]