FROM the moment eight-year-old Nica is introduced, orphaned and sent to the Sunnycreek Orphanage, audiences can sense the melodrama looming on the horizon. Fast forward to her teenage years, Nica is adopted by Anna and Norman alongside the brooding and perpetually misunderstood Rigel.
The film sets up a tale of torment, love and redemption, but executes it with all the subtlety of a high school talent show reenactment of Romeo and Juliet.
Angst in high-definition
The Tearsmith is shot with the kind of bleak, washed-out palette that screams “we are trying to be deep and meaningful.”
Director Alessandro Genovesi seems to have borrowed a page from the Twilight cinematography playbook, ensuring every scene is drenched in either perpetual twilight (pun intended) or the eerie glow of high school fluorescent lights.
The emotional weight the film attempts to carry is undermined by its heavy-handed use of moody lighting and pensive stares.
The high school’s Garden Day, a central plot device, feels like an event pulled from a vampire romance novel. Students exchange roses anonymously, with black roses symbolising tormented love. It is a contrived setup that feels more like a parody than a poignant plot point.
Nica’s receipt of a black rose sets off a series of overly dramatic confrontations, notably with Lionel, who embodies the clichéd jealous suitor with all the grace of a pantomime villain.
Simone Baldasseroni and Caterina Ferioli, playing Rigel and Nica, deliver performances that sway between wooden and overwrought. Rigel is the epitome of the troubled teen archetype, complete with seizures and a tragic backstory involving self-harm to protect Nica.
It is as if the character was designed by an AI that was fed a steady diet of Y/A dystopian romance novels. Nica, on the other hand, is the damsel, torn between her past traumas and her inexplicable attraction to Rigel.
Red flags
Alessandro Bedetti’s Lionel is less a character and more a collection of red flags stitched together in the vague shape of a human.
His advances toward Nica culminate in an attempted assault during the school dance, leading to a predictable showdown with Rigel.
The film’s handling of this subplot is as ham-fisted as one might expect, lacking the nuance necessary for such heavy themes.
When Rigel has a seizure and later ends up in a coma after a dramatic river escape, the film dives headfirst into soap opera territory. Margaret, the headmistress of Sunnycreek, reclaims custody of Rigel, setting up the ultimate battle between love and oppression. Nica’s decision to testify against Margaret is the turning point, underscoring the film’s clumsy attempt to convey that love and a good courtroom drama conquers all.
In the end, Nica and Rigel’s love story prevails, with the couple happily married and parenting a daughter. It is a sugary sweet conclusion to a story that spent most of its runtime wallowing in gloom. The message that love conquers all is hammered home with the subtlety of a sledgehammer, leaving viewers more exasperated than inspired.
The film’s earnest attempts at romance and drama are overshadowed by its unintentional humour and lack of self-awareness.
For those who enjoy a good cringe-worthy love story, this might just be the perfect guilty pleasure. For everyone else, it is a reminder that not all adaptations are created equal and sometimes, love is not enough to save a sinking ship.
The Tearsmith is currently streaming on Netflix.
DIRECTOR: Alessandro Genovesi
CAST: Caterina Ferioli, Simone Baldasseroni, Sabrina Paravicini, Alessandro Bedetti
E-VALUE: 4
ACTING: 4
PLOT: 4
