The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond

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  • Opened December 30, 2009 
  • 1 hr 42 min
  • PG-13 | some sexuality and drug content
  • Set in the Roaring Twenties in Williams’ (and Markell’s) home town of Memphis, the film tells the story of Fisher Willow (Howard) a headstrong young heiress who chafes under the constraints of proper Southern society, and who rebels by asking the impoverished but handsome son of her father’s caretaker, Jimmy Dobyne (Evans), to escort her to the major social events of the season. The relationship is purely a business arrangement at the outset, with Fisher paying for Jimmy’s time and attention, but when she discovers that she really loves him, she finds it impossible to re-write the rules and earn the affection she tried to buy. Full synopsis

  • Cast: Bryce Dallas Howard, Chris Evans, Ann-Margret, Will Patton, Ellen Burstyn
  • Director: Jodie Markell
  • Genres: Drama

What's the Buzz?

So-so
Critics say So-So
51 out of 100
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Critic Reviews

75
San Francisco Chronicle
| Mick LaSalle

This film is the closest we're going to get to anything new by Williams, and it's a respectable effort. Read full review

75
Chicago Sun-Times
| Roger Ebert

The film has its rewards and one performance of great passion. That would be by Ellen Burstyn, as Miss Addie, who plays it all in her sick bed in a Tennessee country mansion with a debutante party going on downstairs. Read full review

70
Los Angeles Times
| Betsy Sharkey

Despite Teardrop Diamond's rough edges, the filmmaker, who has spent much of her career acting on stage and screen, succeeds in transporting us back to that other time; capturing the lyricism of the dialogue and the fetid South that Williams so brilliantly envisioned where nearly everything goes to rot. Read full review

63
Chicago Tribune
| Michael Phillips

The script is half-a-fortune at best, and visually the picture is staid. But you stick with it, because it's Williams and because certainly no one since Williams has written this sort of embroidered dialogue. Read full review

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Bryce Dallas Howard in "The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond."