The Tearsmith

Based on the Italian novel, you would think "The Tearsmith" would be a beautiful dark romance with fitting dialogues and a seething, intriguing plot-line, but it was rather underwhelming.

SUMMARY OF MY THOUGHTS: The movie is mediocre in my opinion. But if someone asked me if they should watch it, I'd probably tell them not to sweat it. The trailer made me anticipate what turned out to be underwhelming and poorly made in terms of depth and pacing, along with a poorly constructed plot line. The vibes and cinematography were great though, and the chemistry between the actors was present. But mostly it's a basic forbidden romance that delivered less than it promised. So I guess you can watch it if you're a young teen that likes to fantasise about forbidden romances, and look at beautiful things. The movie is beautiful visually, but not so much practically.

If you want to know an in depth explanation on my thoughts, continue reading.

PLOT: (-) The plot in general is basic and poor, even in the novel. But the book was saved due to the beautiful writing, but it didn't translate very well on screen. On screen the plot just felt like it was adapted from a steamy forbidden romance web novel written by a teenager.

AWKWARD: (-) The Italian novel it is based on is great, but that didn't translate very well on screen. Most of the movie was awkward, from the dialogues to the pacing. The dialogues were rather dramatic and cringey to be in a feature film, making it seem like it is based off a fan fiction novel written by a desperate teen.

Dramatic "alpha male" dialogues make sense to read in the form of a book, but in a film where it is acted out, it is hard to watch unless you're a part of the same testosterone energy desperate flock.

As a non Italian speaker, reading subtitles of such scenes may have increased the awkwardness I felt.

PACING: (-) The novella is lengthy, so adapting it into a movie less than 2 hours long is difficult, and a bad decision.

The extremely fast pacing of the movie made the characters and story loose their depth. As soon as the movie started, it already felt like they were rushing to finish it and show as many scenes as they can.

The fast pacing prevented us from seeing a natural development of the characters' relationships so it's a shame.

Although the actors had good chemistry together, the chemistry just didn't make sense.

In general, the speed of scene flow just threw me off and made most scenes seem non-sensical and unrelated.

Perhaps it would've flowed better if it was made into a short series rather than a movie, not that I would've like it either way.

LACK OF DEPTH OF MALE LEAD: (-) As someone who read 70% of the novel, I think that the novel itself lacked enough of Rigel's (Male Lead) back story.

So you can assume how much worse it was in the movie. Due to there not being enough emphasis on why Rigel felt the way he did, behaved the way he did, or even liked Nica (Female Lead) the way he did in the first place, it was hard to empathise with him as a character, though he's very likeable.

The actor that performed the role of Rigel, did a good job nonetheless.

CINEMATOGRAPHY: (+) Needless to say, the cinematography and frames of the movie were deliciously done. The color grading only added on to the beauty of the film. The cinematography contrasted really well according to the setting, and was very fitting for the characters.

The dark, eerie, yet beautiful shots I saw in the trailer are what made me anticipate watching it in the first place.

All in all, good vibes.

SOUNDTRACK: (±) The soundtrack was decent. I suppose the piano pieces might've saved the movie. Otherwise the Billie eilish song placement was okay.

Though I have to say, the songs had great timing, but the Olivia song was so random and uncalled for. It was very unfitting and made me cringe at its placement. Especially since Vampires in general having nothing to do with the film, and the pop genre itself is a bad contrast with it.

CHEMISTRY/ACTING: (+) The actors did a great job, inspite of this being their first feature film. They sold the chemistry between the characters pretty well inspite of the terrible pacing of the movie.

Though I felt the acting of the actress that played Nica, was rather bleak, lacking diversity, perhaps that's her own interpretation of the character. So I won't judge too harshly.

The actor that played Rigel, did a decent job, but I felt as though he wasn't able to sell the "new boy crush" persona at school too well, since the only charisma I felt from his was due to his appearance, but much less from his demeanour. Maybe working on that would've helped him ooze with charisma and sex-appeal more, since his poses looked borderline uncomfortable and unnatural most of the time.

This is why workshops before starting to film a movie are so important, not just to develop charisma between the characters, but also to work on their individual plots.

Although I have to say, one scene towards the end, on the bridge that was seen in the trailer, was borderline cringey, as much because of its acting as it is because of the direction and construction.

CASTING: (+) The casting of the actors was better than one could ask for, including the child actors. That's one thing I could clap for.

TARGET AUDIENCE: (±) This movie will be disliked by 70% of the watchers. The 20% that like it will probably be aroused teens and young adults that like to be titillated, and are pleased by visually beautiful aesthetics.

That's all.

I feel like this should've been a series or at least a longer movie, as there are too many crucial details in the book that they failed to mention in this movie. Especially a lot about Nica and Rigel's relationship wasn't really portrayed very well on screen and lacked the depth and detail present in the book, which is probably why most people rated this fairly low. I would, too, if I hadn't read the book before. Up until the middle of the movie it was pretty decent and followed the book accurately, but the rest felt incredibly rushed. I really urge people to read the book though, as it's way better than this adaption.

So. You cannot compare something like this to your Green Mile, Shawshank Redemption or Schindler's List, but if you go in thinking "hey, you know what, I fancy some sort of simple angsty drama romance with a tad more depth", you will find it meets just that.

I'm reading other reviews and they mention it's based off of a book and, when I fancy a bit of light reading that doesn't require a huge amount of brainpower, I'll be there. It feels like one of those coin-buying app novels where every chapter is a cliffhanger designed to keep you reading and written by someone who does it to pass the time but knows what's required to earn the big bucks.

Everyone is very characterised; you've got your inside, sunglasses-wearing villain with a cane, you've got the chisel-jawed, talented heartthrob brother (who isn't really your brother) as the male protagonist, you've got your strong-ish but also damsel-in-distress-ish female protagonist and you then decide to throw in your 2-Dimensional best friends who are either "just ugly" or going through "unrequited love" and boom: we got ourselves a story. I'm not going into how it insults each party, otherwise we'd be here all day, but I do simply want to say that the 2D friends just really angered me in the way they were "used". They added literally nothing to the story, just thrown in there for the sake of it and maybe to seem "more edgy". Hence, insulting.

I'm glad I read the reviews first because then I knew what I was walking into. I'll be honest, I saw more chemistry between these two main characters than the actors who were the leads in "One Day". Shoot me, if you will, but that's my honest opinion. The music was actually top-notch. Again, very angsty, very teenage-drama, and it hit the nail on the head for what it was aiming to be. Whack in some moody lighting and some - actually, honestly - pretty well-filmed cinematography and you've got yourself a reasonable watch.

Others have compared it to Twilight and I can't help but agree. In fact, I'd go as far to say that the acting of the main protagonists was actually better (in this, there was more lip-biting from the guy than the gal in comparison).

Dissecting what the writer likely would label as the "deep and meaningful" part of their story regarding what they went through as children...it's a gentle subject for an awful lot of people, so this is where it's important to acknowledge the mark. Do I think it was highlighted as an important, deep and meaningful part of the storyline? No. The focus here was the romance and chemistry of our two protagonists. Then the rest of the issues were written around it to boost their relationship. If it meant to come across as the main point being victims finally standing up and calling out their abusers as the main subject, it fails. Because from what I saw, it's just about how two people came to love and support each other despite their awful upbringings.

Once you bring it down to that, I have to say, it was actually "alright". I won't be watching it again anytime soon, unless I'm wanting something on in the background as I paint my house's living room walls. I'm pleased, however, for those who found it particularly enjoyable because at the end of the day, each to their own and if you want to read further into the message (which is literally explained over and over again in a post-recorded narration because it presumes we're all stupid) then fair enough. Your passion is your passion.

I will say that it doesn't deserve below a 4 star review - even if you hated it, and I can empathise - because the casting, lighting, cinematography and (some of the) acting was actually not that bad.

Give it a shot if you're feeling poorly and taking a day off school or work.

The cinematography in the trailer piqued my interest because it looked absolutely beautiful and as i already watched Twilight, thought maybe this could be a better version of that because by now the maker should have known what lacked in Twilight so that this one could be better. As usual, i was wrong.

The movie didn't deliver much in terms of depth or character growth. We don't know why Margaret was so attached to Rigel and awful to Nica. No elaboration over why the couple felt compelled to adopt two teenagers, that too just by seeing Rigel playing piano. Also why they thought their romance was forbidden when they are not even related.

The sexual tension was there between the leads but still felt a bit flat. And acting in places were also flat. The supporting actors from the school were really bad and that side story of the two girls wasn't needed in the sense that it didn't add any value to the story or had any impact on Nica's friendship with them. The lackluster third act as usual made no sense, it could have been something powerful but instead the court scene was almost cheesy because i don't think anyone talks like that in court.

One thing i must gush about is the background music, especially the piano piece playing through the movie is so soulful and soothing, it was the best thing in there, sorry to the composers that their masterpieces were wasted on such a mediocre cinema.

Honestly, I enjoyed the movie. As other people said - is it Oscar worthy - no. Is it, however, a nice movie to escape reality for a bit - yes.

It could've been a little longer and would've benefited from a bit more character development, but people need to understand that you cannot retell a whole novel in one movie, no matter how hard you try.

With that being said, I've read some ridiculous complaints such as that it does not become clear why the family chose to adopt Rigel so suddenly or why Ms. Margaret hated Nica so much.

So let me break it down - Rigel obviously reminded Mr. And Mrs. Milligan of their son, who passed away probably not too long ago (since he loved playing the piano, just like Rigel does and that is the exact moment when the family seemingly out of nowhere decide to bring home both Nica and Rigel).

Ms. Margaret, on the other hand, probably hates Nica because she sees her as a potential threat to Rigel and as someone who might "take him away from her". This is why she does everything in her power to punish Nica, out of spite.

I liked the cast, I think they suited their roles just fine and the movie is obviously targeted towards a younger audience. The atmosphere is also very nice, a little dark.

Overall I would say I enjoyed it, although the ending felt rushed and was a bit disappointing. However, as I previously said - it is impossible to reach the depth of the novel, which is completely understandable.