Unfortunately, this film has it’s own struggle with it’s strange and mainly un-eventful story. The plot moves at the speed of molasses, barely kicking in around thirty minutes into the movie, proving this to be one of Tennessee Williams’ less-impressive pieces of work. With a strong cast and surprisingly fine direction from Jodie Markell in her sophomore pic, it keeps you sane for a duration of the movie.

Howard’s portrayal of Fisher, a stubborn and confused woman whom you question could have any form of friends at all, is commendable as she seems to take on the role completely, seeping into a character whose personality makes her too difficult to even side with until near the end of the movie. Chris Evans as Jimmy is strange, unpredictable role where he basically stands around like a statue throughout a majority of the film, which does not really help move it forward at all. The remainder of the cast is decent but forgettable, hard to swallow, and difficult to even try siding with in this scenic background that is at times more enjoyable than some of the characters themselves.

Markell treats the camera like an audience at a play, everything amped up to a higher dramatic standpoint that works many times through the film. What Williams’ story lacks in pacing and a some what cold story line is made up by a strong female lead and the careful vision of the director. While Markell’s directing and Howard’s acting do give some points to the film, the sluggish plot and other yawn-worthy performances from the rest of the cast are too much to bear. It’s admirable that Markell chose a selection from one of America’s greatest playwrights, but it’s disappointing that it’s a story that perhaps was not worth it.

Rating: 1.5 out of 5 stars

Melissa Molina: Of course I read what they gave me and I did a little background research on you because I always like knowing about the people that I’m talking to. You have a pretty large theatre background, being an actress and then you flipped over to directing The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond. What made you suddenly leap into film?

Jodie Markell: Well, actually I was always very visual; my mother was a painter and I just grew up with a lot of art in the house. When I went to college I studied in the school of speech and my major was interpretation, a combination of theatre and english. We looked at adapting material to the stage and screen from literature. So I was always approaching that as a writer and a director, how to get to the original voice of the story that your adapting. That sort of shaped me as an artist, and even as an actor I would always say, “How does my role fit into the whole picture?”

So I always was looking at the whole piece and finally I was able to have a chance to direct some plays and then I made a short film. Again, it was set in the South so I felt I had a special connection to that kind of material. When I first read this screenplay (Loss of a Teardrop Diamond) I just kept it in my heart through the years after I read it. Then I ran into (Brad) Michael Gilbert, the producer, and he had the same affinity for the material, secured the rights and that’s how that happened.

Melissa Molina: Now I know your originally from the South. Was it kind of like a return-to-your-roots when it came to filming on location?

Jodie Markell: Yes, absolutely, and I felt that I have never really seen the South portrayed in a film in an authentic way. There’s such a mystery there, a haunted and a poetic feeling there that I’ve wanted to see more in film. This gave me a perfect opportunity to explore that and I feel like it’s a vanishing world and I really wanted to capture it before it’s gone forever, turning into the rest of America which is one big shopping mall. It’s got it’s unique, individual environment that I wanted to portray in the film.

Melissa Molina: Yeah, because when it comes to the South either it’s a dark, desolate or your more than likely going to be killed by some sort of serial killer. I don’t know, there’s such different interpretations and this one did seem poetic. It was like the backdrop for a poetry reading that just burst into life.

Jodie Markell: Thank you, that’s what we really were trying to support that kind of visual world. Actually, sometimes when I’m in California I think about the serial killers more than I do in the South. (laughs) In the South you think of racism or you think of certain things. But (Tennessee) Williams said he always wrote about the South, because everything he ever wrote was about loss. A lot of Southerners carry around with them this sort of chip on their shoulders that something was lost when the Civil War was lost. It was a way of life and a certain graceful world that was it’s own thing.

This period where the film is set, in the twenties, the Old South was being replaced by the New South, and there were many vices that the Old South had as well with slavery, etc. Those being stripped away left the people with a feeling of sadness and guilt. Williams was fascinated with transition so I think it was very important that he set this in the 1920s. While the rest of the world was dealing with the modern age, the South was just dealing with becoming the New South which was characterized by greed and pragmatism.

When I spoke to the actors, we talked about how was their character feeling through this transition, and it was an interesting world to explore. Williams said he wrote about the South because he was interested in exploring the vices that brought down this once graceful world.

Melissa Molina: When it comes to you and basically having a love affair with (Tennessee) Williams’ work, you keep on saying that you held the screenplay close to your heart. Was this one particular piece of Williams that you always wanted to adapt into a feature?

Jodie Markell: It was, yes, especially because it had not been done. Also because the two main characters are young, and I felt it’s important to introduce Williams to a new audience. A lot of the younger generation kids maybe just think of Williams as the guy with “Stella!” and that’s all they really know or they might have seen some over-baked production that was not done very authentically. So I was hoping to impression the world of Williams by working with this screenplay because it takes place in another time period. It was written in the fifties but it doesn’t take place there while a lot of his work takes place in the fifties. By removing him to even earlier in our history I feel that it helps freshen the characters.

I like that it was set in the 1920s, it was very unusual for his work. So those were some of the things that made it extra special for me. Most of all I related to the character Fisher very well. As a young artist, I felt that I connected to her feeling out of place with conventional society. I think Williams cross-generations to those people who feel maybe a little misunderstood or too sensitive for a harsher world. Especially today, a lot of younger generation are looking for some kind of a soulful, poetic expression. You’d be surprised how many younger people are saying that this is so exciting for them.

Melissa Molina: Well it was definitely some what off-beat compared to the films that come out nowadays. I mean first off this is something that is Williams that has not been done a billion times, and second also includes where it was set. So, you told me that when you finally got the rights, what was it like finally trying to get through the estate to go and grab them?

Jodie Markell: Well Brad Michael Gilbert, our producer, was the one who was able to secure the rights. We had to keep approaching them because there was an executor in charge of the estate who was very tight with everything. She actually passed away and the state changed their leadership or representation or whoever was making the decisions. We re-approached and by that time I made my short film with Brad producing it. They saw my short film and they liked it. They knew I was from the South and I wrote them letters and then we finally got the rights.

Melissa Molina: Yep, triumph!

Jodie Markell: Yeah. (laughs)

Melissa Molina: You previously said that you’ve purposefully looked for theatre actors to fill up your roles. Being a theatre actor yourself, were you a bit harsher than you would have expected a normal director to be during the castingprocess?

Jodie Markell: Actually, I hoped that I was less harsh because I know what actors go through. I love working with actors. The ones that have the lead roles I just made offers to and I already knew their work. If your already thrilled by what an actor does I don’t see any reason to put them through the audition. I can tell if a particular actor can handle a different style, you can tell what is genuine about their work. So I don’t have to say, “Oh, can you read these lines?” I don’t need to ask that question because I know actors and I can tell what they can do.

I had an acting teacher once who said, “I can see what an actor can do by reading the telephone book.” So it’s about their quality and I didn’t want theatre actors, I just wanted actors who had theatre experience but were film actors. It was interesting, they were known as film actors but I knew that they had paid their dues or had a great love for the theatre. In auditions for the other smaller roles I really tried to create a very supportive environment. I often like to give an actor a note to see if they can handle taking direction, and sometimes I would say, “That’s it, they got it.” It’s quite an enjoyable process.

Melissa Molina: With Bryce Dallas Howard, I’ve seen some of her work so it was like— (Computer in the office that we are at ends up making a weird sound. Both of us end up breaking out into laughter for a minute). Anyways, Chris Evans I’ve only seen in action-packed kind of films. So when he went and took on the role of Jimmy, what made you end up choosing him? He kind of seemed out of place at first until I saw the film.

Jodie Markell: I don’t think of him as being out of place. Actually, Brad Michael Gilbert first introduced me to his work. I met with Chris, and from my meeting with him I could tell that he had this vulnerability, this sensitivity. There is something enigmatic about him, especially in this role, which was important for Williams’ hero. Williams was fascinated by those young men who you weren’t sure what they were thinking about the woman who was projecting on them. Chris is just able to smolder, which a lot of contemporary actors are not able to do. They get too busy, they get too flashy or they’re thinking too hard. With Chris, you get taken in by his work, you just can dream on him. As a person and as a character it’s important for Fisher to be able to do that and for other characters in the film as well. He also has such honesty and a brutal honesty is essential for all of Williams’ work.

Melissa Molina: Well yeah, he really projected that out with his character. There was actually a couple of moments where I was like, “Does he even like Fisher?” You know, your just kind of confused and for instance when she’s singing away while watching the steamboat on the river, one minute she’s singing and it’s kind of cool how you zoomed in the focus on her. Because at first it looks like suddenly you put the spotlight only on her, you can’t see anything in the background, and next minute she’s like, “Jimmy? What?” It’s like this guy is totally unpredictable but in some ways just meshes well with Fisher, the characters and all.

Jodie Markell: Yeah, I love how you described that because that’s just what I was going for. She goes into a dreamworld and he’s not going to go necessarily in that dreamworld with her. Also, I mean how many times have you been to a party where the guy that your with just disappears? Or you’ve heard stories of your girlfriends telling you that, and it’s not unheard of. In this case, all of Williams world is a bit heightened so you feel the weight of what that does to her, maybe not as dramatic in real life but it is based on a reality of behavior. Because Williams writes poetry, you do go into that dream with her and we wanted to reflect that visually.

Melissa Molina: Yeah, well you definitely knew how to portray that. Other scenes that stood out also was where she’s sitting on the bed and just venting out what she really thinks of herself, what she should do with her life. While she’s doing that a spotlight just shines straight on her. Did you intend to make it seem a bit theatrical? Sometimes, with scenes like that, it feels like all you needed was the audience in front of them and then it’s all on stage.

Jodie Markell: You know it’s funny, some people do see it as being theatrical but again I was not aiming for that. I was aiming for isolation and heightening the reality. (Martin) Scorsese had a couple of moments like that, Age of Innocence is one of my favorite films, where Michelle Pfeiffer and Daniel-Day Lewis where their characters first meet and the rest of the world seems to fade away around them. He was able to do it with actually an Iris technique which worked right for the style for the way he was shooting that film. We tried to do a kind of Iris with the light and also we wanted them to feel like they were alone in the world.

So it was handy that it also resonated as being a theatrical spotlight because it’s a monologue and that’s not often heard in film. Someone recently told me that Williams experimented with writing in monologues because I think it was in the actor’s studio, they were working with sections that were like areas in the opera where people actually take a moment to speak. Well, that moment I…I forgot what I was going to say, I forgot what I was going to say about that. (laughs)

Melissa Molina: It’s okay, it’s okay, take your time.

Jodie Markell: Let’s see…about the monologue…Well Fisher, when she says, “I want to be with people who do things,” it’s just the most moving line to me because I know what it’s like to be growing up in a place where everyone want and be accepted but they might not express themselves creatively. I think all young artist feel that cry, but there are also (Elia) Kazan’s A Streetcar Named Desire and he has several times when a character’s delivering a monologue where he does a very subtle pan into them. Today we would say that’s so theatrical, so artificial, and actually everything does sort of fade away. So we were all still homaging and referencing that movie.

Melissa Molina: Well, your just apparently telling us, “This is Tennessee Williams! Don’t forget,” but in a good way obviously.

Jodie Markell: Of course. (laughs)

Melissa Molina: That’s one of the things that I liked about the character Fisher and how she’s the most relatable. From the outside surface you think she’s just some snooty, rich girl who’s not taking life seriously and just wants to party. She ends up trying to find her own place in the world like many of us around my age, now I sound real young, who are just trying to find that one spot, saying that your here and you make your print on the world. That’s not really a question or anything, it’s more of a statement as to the relation with the character.

Jodie Markell: Yeah, yeah, exactly. Good observation.

Melissa Molina: Thanks. Another scene that I really liked, and was heartbreaking too, is the piano scene. I’m sure you’ve heard this a few times, with the hard strum of the chords and then the two of them, everything like that. Well, it was kind of heartbreaking.

Jodie Markell: Yes, I think it is too. Williams picked that piece of music, it’s a and when I first found that piece of music I read the scene out loud, put the music on my stereo. I couldn’t believe it because it’s so matched, the emotional ups and downs of the scenes. Williams was a genius and he scored his own work with this one by selecting that piece. I wanted to show what was happening in the car because I thought that is what’s going through Fisher’s mind. Maybe it’s happening, maybe she’s also imagining it, so its back to her dream-like world.

Melissa Molina: Is there anything smoldering on your plate of what your going to do next?

Jodie Markell: It’s funny you use that image because I always say that I have a few things on the fire and we’ll see which one catches first. (laughs) I think you have to as an artist. There’s a play I want to direct, four or five screenplays, I’m reading other things. There’s this book that I want to adapt, and we’ll just have to see what thing catches fire first.

Melissa Molina: Well at least your going to be busy? (laughs)

Jodie Markell: (laughs) Yes, well thank you.

Melissa Molina: And thank you too.

The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond comes out in selected cities on December 30th. Check out your local theater listings to see if it’s playing near you.

The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond comes out in New York and Los Angeles on December 30th with an expanding release shortly after. Here’s the trailer: