“The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond,” based on a Tennessee Williams screenplay and featuring Bryce premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. It has been recieved really well, you can watch the trailer here and heres what one journalist had to say…

“I really have no fondness for Tennessee Williams, whom I find to be one of the most pompous and overrated playwrights whose work has ever been staged, so to find myself enjoying Jodie Markell’s directorial debut The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond even remotely is nothing short of amazing.

Much of that comes from the terrific casting of Bryce Dallas Howard, who is almost unrecognizable as Memphis party girl Fisher Willow, who hires her family’s yard hard Jimmy (Chris Evans) to accompany her to all sorts of high society social events during the roaring ’20s. Fisher’s ability to have a good time at these parties is waylaid by the fact that her father has made many enemies among the other local families, creating much tension.

The characters and writing are classic Williams, which means it’s a lot of dull Southern stereotypes getting into unlikely situations that few modern-day non-Southerners will be able to relate to. On the other hand, it’s the kind of thing that theater buffs, particularly Williams fans, will swoon over, especially in the way Markell and her terrific production team made an amazing looking film that creates the perfect mood for Williams’ style of storytelling, including a couple shots so gorgeous you’ll let out a gasp.

It’s all about the performances though, and as good as the mostly young cast is, it’s Ellen Burstyn who almost steals the movie, while Will Patton also has a great scene with Evans as Jimmy’s drunken father. Fans of Tennessee Williams will welcome this lost work and the way Markell and her cast bring it to life, although I couldn’t ever see this doing much business outside New York, L.A. and other “theater towns.””