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Though playwright Tennessee Williams has been dead for over a quarter-century, his cinematic output continues to grow.
“The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond,” based on a screenplay Williams wrote in the 1950s, has finally come to the screen, and you can tell it’s Williams from a cotton field away: a haunted yet saucy Southern heroine who relies on the kindness of near-strangers, a doomed romance, an elderly opium user and a brief glimpse of a picturesque insane asylum.
Set in 1923 Mississippi, the story is simple: A young, lovely heiress (Bryce Dallas Howard, with dark hair making a fetching contrast to her porcelain skin), caring little about society’s conventions, pays an unwealthy man (Chris Evans) to be her escort at parties – and then, in between conversations with disapproving aunts (Ann-Margret) and bed-ridden addicts (Ellen Burstyn), realizes she’s fallen in love with him.
Director Jodie Markell gives it all a slow, showy, almost theatrical pace. At one point, interior lights dim and brighten though not touched by the characters, both heightening and cheapening the intimacy of the moment. Read full article.
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