REVIEW: ‘The Tearsmith’ Is A New Level Of Awful

Do not watch The Tearsmith (Fabbricante di Lacrime). This Italian-language Netflix Original YA romance directed by Alessandro Genovesi and based on the novel of the same name by Erin Doom is one of the worst offerings the service has ever produced. It’s a dim and dismal hodgepodge of overdone YA beats with no heart, no chemistry, and no point.

There are two semi-valuable aspects to The Tearsmith: the teenage actors and one of the subplots. All the respect in the world to Caterina Ferioli and Simone Baldasseroni for trying their darndest as Nica and Rigel, respectively. The pair are sworn enemies at an orphanage run by a cruel, abusive mistress. Only Rigel is her favorite child, so he receives none of her wrath. Everybody is gaslit out of the wazoo at this place. The pacing of the plot, the editing, and the aggravating narration do the audience no favors either. It’s very difficult to follow pretty much anything that goes on in the orphanage.

This is surely meant to be the case. The Tearsmith attempts to weave a murky thriller of a plot. It’s evidenced by the melodramatic score and the constantly too-dark-to-see settings. But everything jumps around so fast, and the script is so poor that even when Nica tries to shove information down your throat with constant and distracting narration, it’s hard to pick any of it up. Who were these two really to each other before the most boring parents in cinema adopted them together? It’s impossible to tell if they hated each other or were in love and how well they understood the nature of their relationship.

And it hardly feels like it matters because they’re so entirely uninteresting together. By the time the umpteenth needle drop screams “teenagers with drama” with American pop fiars by Olivia Rodrigo and Billie Eilish, you know The Tearsmith wishes it was some kind of Gen Z Twilight. But that would require any semblance of a plot and characters to actually root for. Nica and Rigel aren’t offputting unto themselves. But you can’t tell why they’re attracted to each other at all. The movie is also rated TV-MA for language and nudity. While thank goodness this teen drama doesn’t contain actual nutity, the fact that it gets this rating for one and a half mediocre intimacy scenes is embarassing.

The one subplot that almost works is when one of Nica’s friends reveals she’s in love with their third friend. It almost works because it’s the one time in the whole movie when a character’s emotional vulnerability doesn’t feel like it’s just checking a box. The entire movie is so paint-by-numbers. The two kids are pining. They’re fighting. There’s a third interloper who’s worse than the rest of them. Suddenly, there’s a trial at some point (which contains some of the most egregious film lawyering imaginable).

But then there’s this one brief scene between friends. Which, of course, is marred by the fact that the one girl creepily just kisses the other while she’s sleeping, thinking Nica isn’t still in the room to see it. And by the movie’s end, there’s virtually no resolution to this subplot. So, really, the one nearly good thing this movie has going completely falls apart under, too. It would be frustrating, but The Tearsmith is hardly worth the calories of energy expenditure it requires to be mildly frustrated.

The Tearsmith is an utterly confusing, absolutely uninteresting mess of a movie. There are things about this movie that absolutely deserve to work. And perhaps with greater care, they may have. But with no redeeming qualities, one can only hope that these clearly passionate teenage actors get more chances to participate in projects worthy of their time.

The Tearsmith is streaming now on Netflix.