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.
