In a film with a runtime of just over 80 minutes, most of the first 15 minutes or so is unnecessary. Much more curt exposition would have been beneficial; consider Lars von Trier's 'Antichrist,' in which a few sparing minutes are all it takes to establish the couple's grief and despondency. The plot does seem to advance pretty quickly after opening - but I was immediately skeptical of just about everything the feature presented to us. There's a glaring sense of insincerity to 'Tear us apart' in the writing, direction, and acting alike. The narrative concept bears strong potential for a straight horror thriller, a searing psychological thriller, dire human interest drama, or any combination thereof, but the realization seems so ungenuine that this could very well be a Lifetime original movie - worse than that; a knockoff thereof. The pacing is forced, and editing and sequencing are needlessly brusque, indelicate, and ultimately just awful; whatever impact a scene should have is entirely deflated in the process. Dialogue is ham-handed and dubious, and scene writing is questionable and less than credible - it's all but impossible to bet invested in a story that's presented with near indifference, and a desperate lack of authenticity.
It seems this is the first feature film for director Devin Clarke or screenwriter John Thomas Kelley. One would hope that from here they will further develop their skills and give us something to enjoy in the future. As it is, however, Clarke's direction feels bereft of passion and immediacy, choppy and all but haphazard, and heavy-handed. Kelley's screenplay is overflowing with palpable artificiality in every regard - as half the movie passes with no meaningful plot progression, we're left to doubt the narrative as a whole. As the movie ends in another 40-odd minutes, without any thrill, emotional weight, or otherwise value having been effectively imparted, we wonder how we got duped into watching in the first place.
With all this, the cast is at best wasted, and at worst coerced into performances that are utterly rotten and unconvincing. The only cast member I'm familiar with is Elma Begovic; I've seen her in a couple other movies and greatly admired the skills she demonstrated. In 'Tears us apart' - try as she might to make something out of the deeply inadequate writing, Begovic shifts between instances of overacting and total detachment, but at no point can she make protagonist Helen believable; this portrayal is beneath her. I have no point of comparison for chief supporting actors Michael Lipka or Sean Ballantyne, but without knowing any better, one has to wonder if they were actually putting any effort into their acting. It sure doesn't seem like it, from an outside perspective.
Even the technical craft and rounding details seem to suffer from the picture's utmost tawdry construction and lack of due consideration. There are a small handful of good ideas buried within the total dreck, but they - and 90% of the plot - are left for the last 10-15 minutes, shoehorned ill-fittingly into a mess of a story, and realized with no greater tenability than anything else here has been. The climax represents the closest the movie gets to quality, but even then the marker is vanished over the horizon. No matter what drew you in to 'Tears us apart,' I cannot emphasize firmly enough just how utterly terrible a feature this is. I've regrettably seen many irredeemably horrid clunkers, and still this one manages to surprise with how thoroughly putrid it is in all possible ways. Under no circumstances can I recommend this, and for the sake of the public good, it may be a fair idea to petition for it to be removed as a streaming title from any sites that host it.
80 minutes I'll never get back. Blech.
