newjerseynewsroom.com

BY MIRIAM RINN

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

MOVIE REVIEW

Based on an original 1950's screenplay by Tennessee Williams, this new film showcases many of the great playwright's central themes — the destructive effect of conformity, the human need for love and beauty, society's fear of unfettered sexuality. It also underlines how dependent Williams' work is on skilled actors. His lushly melodramatic language, so often described as poetic or lyrical, can sound silly, even campy, when delivered by actors who are not up to the job. "Loss of a Teardrop Diamond" presents both schools of acting, and the result is a film that lurches from the ridiculous to the sublime and back again.

Set in 1920's Memphis, the film opens with a white man ordering the destruction of a levee, an act that can't help but remind viewers of Hurricane Katrina and the flooding of so much of New Orleans. That man is the father of Fisher Willow, a wealthy young socialite who has recently returned from Europe. She is staying with her prim and snobbish Aunt Cornelia (a very dour Ann-Margaret), who reminds Fisher regularly that she will be her heir — if she behaves. We meet Fisher as she's drunkenly swaying to the blues in an African-American dancehall, which is supposed to indicate that she's a sexually free spirit, a right-thinking liberal in a racist society, an unhappy, self-destructive drunk, or all of the above. It's a clichéd introduction to a character who is herself a cliché, at least in this interpretation.

Showing up in front of his shack early in the morning after her night out, Fisher explains to the good-looking Jimmy Dobyne, the son of her father's caretaker, that she needs an escort to the coming-out parties her aunt insists she go to, and she wants to pay him for his time, as well as his clothes. This proposition is delivered in an atmosphere of eroticized languor, with lots of sidelong glances and parted lips. Dobyne hesitates, but reconsiders when he recalls that his mother is locked up in the state loony bin, and money might transfer her to a better facility. His reprobate father is all for the idea, noticing that Fisher is quite a looker. And now we come to a glaring casting mistake. Fisher is played by Bryce Dallas Howard, a young actress who resembles Elizabeth Taylor at her most succulent. The notion that this woman would have to pay for a date is ludicrous — she'd have to fight men off just to get a breath of air. Interestingly, Williams wrote the screenplay with Julie Harris in mind for the lead, a much more intelligent choice. Harris's boyish, plain looks would have given the notion some plausibility. Howard's ripe beauty, on the other hand, makes her offer seem vulgar and condescending, and the character incomprehensible.

Jimmy accepts, and they go to a party, where Fisher again breaks the social code and is rejected by her small-minded society. Despite loathing all the people around her, Fisher has pleaded to borrow her aunt's teardrop diamond earrings to go to yet another of these soirees. The title of the film forecasts what happens, which leads to one of the silliest scenes imaginable. Director Jodie Markell hasn't made sense of either Jimmy or Fisher's confused and contradictory motives, and the actors haven't helped much.

But it didn't have to be that way, as Ellen Burstyn proves in her short scenes as Miss Addie, a paralyzed morphine addict who asks Fisher for a great favor. Her character might have seemed as unbelievable, but when Burstyn delivers Williams' dialogue, it's neither preposterous nor over the top, but deeply moving and true. We believe in her suffering and grief, in her desperation to be free. Will Patton is also credible as Jimmy's father, but these are relatively small parts, and they can't carry the film. This is Markell's first feature, and she's chosen a difficult project. Some of her camera work is effective, but this first try isn't a winner.