The Tearsmith (Netflix), directed by Alessandro Genovesi, is adapted from Fabbricante di lacrime by novelist Erin Doom, a bestseller that took the Italian version of #BookTok by storm in 2022. The orphanage where Nica and Rigel were raised was a brutal place, a place full of fairy tale imagery the children used to try and withstand their emotional and physical traumas. While they’ve been at odds their entire lives, yet also drawn powerfully to one another, Nica and Rigel must reckon with their upbringing and individual feelings when they are adopted by a couple as teenagers. Get ready for a lot of longing looks, brooding at benches of pianos, and desperate searches for the traditional parts of a fairy tale that will hopefully, finally stick together. “The wolf of the story may seem evil, but he isn’t always so…”
The Gist: When her parents died in a car accident, Nica (Caterina Ferioli) was sent to Sunnycreek Home, which all of the kids called “Grave.” She did have one friend there, the loyal Adeline (Eco Andriolo). But the orphans knew their souls were being choked off in that facility, with its cold marble domes, spare sleeping quarters, and mysterious torture chambers. And Margaret (Sabrina Paravicini), their cruel headmistress, only reserved love for Rigel (Simone Baldasseroni), the boy she had named for a star. After years of being passed over, Nica was finally adopted by a couple who recently lost their own son. And when they heard his beautiful playing at the piano, Anna (Roberta Rovelli) and Norman (Orlando Cinque) were inspired to adopt Rigel, too.
Now on a fast track to officially becoming siblings, Nica and Rigel attend Barnaby High School, where she makes fast friends with Billie (Nicky Passarella) and Miki (Sveva Romana Candelletta) while he strikes tortured handsome guy poses while getting in fights Lionel (Alessandro Bedetti), who’s sweet on Nica. In flashbacks to their time in the orphanage, we also glimpse how Rigel was medicated for fevers and severe headaches, and Nica was strapped to a gurney by Margaret for the slightest infraction. “Don’t touch me,” he says now, in their adjacent bedrooms at Anna and Norman’s. “Are you brave enough to imagine a fairy tale without a wolf?” But Nica has always noticed something in Rigel, even if he won’t admit it. “Maybe there was more than just anger and pain,” she muses in a voiceover. “Maybe there was light in him, too.”
Cue many extended bouts of staring into each other’s eyes. When his condition causes a seizure, she puts him to bed and comforts him – this leads to nuzzling. And while both Rigel and Nica know that their experiences with Margaret at Grave broke something inside of them, they don’t want to face that trauma. Nica would instead embrace her new family dynamic with Anna and Norman, while Rigel just wants to be close to her, even if he won’t admit it. When Nica’s old friend Adeline arrives with news of the plan to pursue charges of abuse against Margaret, it inspires Nica to come forward. The scars Grave inflicted on her are lasting. But what their headmistress did to Rigel is worse. If the embodiment of evil loved only him, then how can he be loved or give love?
What Movies Will It Remind You Of? Wolves in The Tearsmith are only metaphorical. But the forbidden but smoldering romance between Nica and Rigel is right out of the dramas of the Twilight saga.
Performance Worth Watching: Caterina Ferioli carries the bulk of The Tearsmith, lending Nica a burgeoning sense of confidence she can explore while still processing the traumas of her childhood. But Nicky Passarella and especially Sveva Romana Candelletta are also really good here as Nica’s pals Billie and Miki, respectively, even if their own emerging romance is only hinted at before being forgotten entirely.
Memorable Dialogue: “Yes, it’s true. We’re broken. We’re not like the others. Maybe we broke into a thousand pieces so we’d fit together better.” In a romance, this is the kind of stuff someone will say right off the top of their head. But Ferioli, together with Simone Baldasseroni as Rigel, at least have enough chemistry to sell it.
Sex and Skin: Some petting and ear-kissing and eventual shirtlessness; also, Nica experiences a brief moment of unwanted physical aggression.
Our Take: The novel on which The Tearsmith is based was apparently set in Alabama, which might explain the movie’s reliance on US vehicles from the 1980s and ’90s, as well as Nica’s adoptive parents seeming to emulate American styles of dress and homemaking. But the film’s actual setting is not named, all of the dialogue is in Italian, the orphanage that appears in flashbacks is possessed of a brokedown opulence that feels very Baroque, and scenes that occur in a high school building or hospital setting rely on close-ups and soft lighting to obscure their location. All of this makes it really difficult to become fully immersed in the love story between Nica and Rigel. Chemistry-wise, Caterina Ferioli and Simone Baldasseroni have their moments, as far as frustrated lovers trying to find their purpose together certainly can. It is quite possible to root for them. But the setting as it’s portrayed in the film took us way, way out of the immediate story, and especially impedes the romance, which sometimes occurs between two young people who have technically been adopted as siblings, with doors open in a house owned by a couple who are technically now their parents. The Tearsmith doesn’t really ever address the potential ickiness of this, beyond a jealous kid at school attacking Rigel. Maybe this theme found fuller expression in the novel, but in the film, it can’t align itself with the overdone riffing on fairy tales, wolves, and innocent damsels.
Our Call: In The Tearsmith, there are fleeting moments of real chemistry between our youthful romance-havers. It’s a lot of slow burn! And aching looks in the crush’s direction! But there is also the lasting trauma of emotional and physical abuse in one’s childhood, shared with your true love because while you were once orphans, you have been adopted together? Alas, a few of the pieces in The Tearsmith don’t really fit together, and that will make it a SKIP IT for some audiences.
Johnny Loftus (@glennganges) is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.
