Genre: Drama
Director: Sam Mendes
Writer: Lon Charles
Based on the play by Tennessee Williams
Cast: Shia LaBeouf, Rooney Mara, Susan Sarandon, Sebastian Stan
Plot: 1937. St. Louis, Missouri.
Tom Wingfield (Shia LaBeouf) sits on the fire escape of his tenement building residence writing in his notebook when he hears his mother Amanda Wingfield (Susan Sarandon) yell for him inside. She asks Tom if he paid the electricity bill. Tom tells her he won't have the money for it until he gets paid, but that he talked to a girl who works there and convinced her to buy them a few days before they shut their power off. Tom's sister Laura (Rooney Mara) limps across the dining room and sits down next to the radio and stares at a postcard from their father that reads "Hello. Goodbye." Tom chastises his sister for always moping around and tells her she should throw away that pointless postcard. Laura puts the postcard away and goes over to a small shelf full of glass animals figurines. She picks up a unicorn figurine and polishes it. She then returns the unicorn to the rest of her glass menagerie.
Amanda tells her grown children that dinner is ready, and everyone sits down at the kitchen table. Tom lights up a cigarette. Amanda nags Tom, insisting he put out his cigarette and show some manners. Tom refuses to put it out, saying that since he pays his fair share of the bills, he can do whatever he wants in the apartment. As they eat, Amanda longingly describes her younger days when she was being courted by dozens of gentleman callers. Tom and Laura give each other a look, rolling their eyes as if they have heard this story a million times. At the end of the story, Laura grows sad and laments that she'll never have any gentleman callers. After dinner, Tom climbs down the fire escape and sneaks into a movie theater showing the latest Tarzan picture. Tom sips from his flask and falls asleep in the movie theater. He is rustled awake at closing. Tom slinks back home along the empty St. Louis streets. As Tom drunkenly climbs through the fire escape back into the apartment, he knocks over one of his sister's glass figurines. The noise alerts Laura and Amanda and they both come out to the living room to see what happened. Laura quickly goes over to her broken figurine, and starts crying. Amanda, annoyed it being woken by her drunken son, returns to bed. Tom apologizes to Laura for breaking her figurine. Laura fights back her tears and tells Tom that she forgives him.
The next day, Tom goes to work at his job at a local shoe warehouse. He sits on a crate of shoes writing in his notebook when his co-worker Jim O'Connor (Sebastian Stan) suggests he get back to work before the boss catches him and fires him. Tom gets back to work helping Jim load boxes of shoes into crates. Jim asks what Tom is always writing anyways, and Tom tells him that he writes poetry. Jim asks what the poetry is about, and Tom tells him that he doesn't write about anything in particular.
Amanda is getting dressed up, and Laura asks what for. Amanda tells her that money has been a bit too tight for her liking, so she has taken a position selling magazine subscriptions to glamour magazines. Amanda looks at the clock on the wall and asks if Laura has class at the business college today. Laura tells her mother that she her class is later that day.
Laura walks, with her slight limp, alone through the Saint Louis Zoo in the middle of the day. She stops and sits on a bench and watches the zoo's newest exotic exhibit, two giant pandas from China. Laura watches the animals closely. A large group of children start gathering around. Clearly uncomfortable with the crowd, Laura gets up and leaves. On her walk home, she runs across the path of her mother, who realizes that Laura did not go to a class that day. When pressed, Laura confesses that she dropped out of her business classes because she couldn't stand being around all the other people at school. Amanda expresses her frustration, but decides that Laura's best hope at a normal life will be to find a suitable man to marry. Laura tells her mother that she hasn't spoken to a boy she liked since she was in high school. Amanda puts her hand on Laura's shoulder and says that she will ask Tom about finding Laura a suitable gentleman caller.
Back at home, Amanda barges in on Tom writing. Tom becomes argumentative, claiming that she does not respect his privacy. Amanda, oblivious to Tom's frustration with her, asks Tom if he can find a potential suitor for Laura at the warehouse. Tom promises to ask around, but only if Amanda gives him some space. Amanda tells Tom not to abandon her and Laura like his father did. She then goes into the kitchen to make dinner, singing to herself as she cooks. Tom finds Laura on the fire escape and sits down next to her. Laura asks Tom what he's thinking about. Tom tells her that he is thinking about this trick he once saw a magician do where he escaped from a nailed-up coffin. Laura asks why he would be thinking about that, and Tom says that he feels the trick is symbolic of his life.
At the warehouse, Tom and Jim are at work loading crates of shoes into the back of a truck. During a cigarette break, Tom asks Jim if he would want to come over to his family's place for dinner that night. Jim thinks about it for a moment before finally agreeing.
When Tom gets home after work, he tells Amanda that his co-worker Jim will be coming over for dinner. Amanda, excited, begins cleaning up the apartment and helping Laura pick out a suitable dress for dinner. When there is a knock at the door, Amanda asks Laura to answer it. Laura answers the door, but when she sees Jim, she dashes away in a fright. Amanda then goes over to the door and leads Jim to the kitchen table and fixes him a drink. Tom comes in from the fire escape and makes a drink of his own. Laura is lying on the sofa in the living room. When Amanda calls to her to come to the table, Laura refuses. During dinner, Amanda goes over her gentleman caller stories to Jim.
As the meal is coming to an end, the power suddenly go out. Amanda asks Tom if he paid the electricity bill yet, and Tom says that he hasn't gotten around to it. Amanda lights a couple of candles. She hands one to Jim and suggests he bring it out to the living room where Laura is. Jim takes the candle out to the living room and sits on the sofa next to Laura. She reminds him that they knew each other in high school. Jim suddenly remembers that he called her "Blue Roses" because he misheard her say that she had pleurosis. Jim looks around the room and notices the menagerie of glass figurines. Laura tells Jim about her glass figurines. He asks her if she has a favorite, and she picks out the glass unicorn.
In the kitchen, Amanda opens a window, letting the sound of music from across the alley way into the apartment. Laura and Jim sit on the sofa together for an awkward moment, when finally Jim stands up and invites Laura to dance to pass the time. Laura says she is far too shy to dance with him, but Jim grabs her by the hand, forcing her into a clumsy waltz. As they dance, they bump into the table, knocking the glass unicorn to the floor, and breaking off its horn. They kneel down next to the broken unicorn. He profusely apologizes, but she assures him that it is okay. She comments that the unicorn is made of glass, so it isn't unexpected that a piece would break. Jim talks to Laura about how she should be more confident and not so down on herself. Laura smiles, and Jim leans in and kisses Laura, but quickly pulls away from her and stands up. He says that he shouldn't be doing this, dancing and kissing another woman because he is engaged to marry another woman. Laura's face falls and she does everything she can to keep from crying. Amanda gives Jim the glass unicorn, telling him that he should keep it. Laura then gets up and goes to her bedroom. Amanda enters the living room after hearing that Jim is engaged and suggests to Jim that he should leave now. Amanda goes out to the fire escape and accuses Tom of playing a cruel trick on them by bringing an unavailable man over for Laura. Tom insists that he did not know that Jim is engaged, saying that Jim has never once mentioned a fiance while at work.
The next day at work, Tom confronts Jim, asking why Jim didn't mention a fiance before. Jim confesses that he isn't really engaged, he just used that as an excuse because he wasn't comfortable with being set up with Laura. Tom punches Jim in the face. Tom is then immediately fired from the warehouse. Tom walks home, but stops when he gets outside the apartment. He stands there for a moment, before continuing to walk down the street. Tom walks all the way to the outskirts of St. Louis. Tom sees a truck coming up the road, and he sticks his thumb out to hitch hike. The truck driver asks Tom where he's going, and Tom asks him how far away from St. Louis he is willing to drive. The truck then continues on down the road, taking Tom away from St. Louis, and away from Amanda and Laura.
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