My first question when I see another love triangle/toxic relationship plot in a teen drama: “Is this really what teenage girls want?” The thing is, the people who are writing these stories, who are platforming these films, are mostly millennials, and though I fall under the broad category of people who were neither here nor there (age wise) during the love triangle rage, what we’re getting now is worse than mediocre, it’s just bad. Here’s the thing, though: at the time, the love triangle felt fresh; it honestly divided the discourse, and it gave us a lot of yearning and excitement. In the era of Twilight and Hunger Games, there was something more believable about these triangles, possibly the fact that they felt genuine, rather than forced. This is what worked with The Summer I Turned Pretty. It’s believable that both brothers are obsessed with Belly because they both grew up with her, but she ended up paying attention to only one brother.
But when it comes to a toxic story like this one, where nobody is friends anymore, everyone is brooding, and there’s a sense of dread all the time, it’s genuinely uninteresting to see two brothers fighting over one girl. The other thing is that none of these characters feels established in this first film. I suppose if I’d read the books, I’d have more context for what’s going on here, but it appears the makers of the movie don’t really want to give us background on anything. To have a compelling story, you need compelling characters whom you feel drawn to in some way or another. In this case, there is literally nothing that makes you feel interested in these characters. Kamila doesn’t even feel like a main character aside from the fact that all the girls are envious of her, and she’s in a love triangle. The whole point of fictional characters in a romance is for them to have personalities; nobody, and I mean nobody, in this film has a personality. And if you tell me that a brooding man, who is brooding because of something he went through in the past, is an example of good characterization, then I’m walking away from that conversation right there.
We honestly don’t need characters like Thiago anymore. All of these men need therapy, and no, this is not what we need to be encouraging young girls to be interested in. They’re not babysitters; they’re supposed to be romantic equals. Also, what is with the pacing of movies today? There’s literally no real starting point. Everything feels like there’s some context we’ve missed, and there’s nothing to make it seem like it’s telling a story; it’s almost as if it’s just random scenes put together in a sequence. There are some characters who pop up out of nowhere specifically because they have a trope to fulfill.
What is the story of this movie, you might ask? Well, honestly, I’m genuinely short of words. The story is about Kamila, a young girl whose neighbors moved away when she was young because of some major incident, but then one day, several years later, when they’re all teenagers, the neighbors come back. The Di Bianco brothers are both different from each other, but how? We don’t really find out. We’re just meant to know that one is older and all broody and the other is a little freer and younger. What’s actually happening with them, nobody knows, because they’re just like representatives of certain tropes. What makes them special among a plethora of characters we’ve seen like this in just the last year? Nobody knows. This is what makes this movie entirely underwhelming to me. But the question you’ve all been waiting for me to answer is, is it actually hot? Because what else are we watching these films for? My answer to that is, meh. Especially if you compare this to the much steamier and much denser My Fault, I think there’s nothing here that’s really worth watching. It’s not even going to scratch that itch for you, if you know what I mean.
I think the actors do a decent job with the little that they’re given. Alicia Falco is striking as Kamila, but she also looks unbelievably young, which almost makes me feel pervy, considering they’re characters meant to be in high school. To be honest, I think the childhood story had potential, but it’s completely lost in whatever else is happening in the film. Yes, I could be considered one of those people who hate-watched the Culpable franchise (I watched it for work, okay?), but even still, I did want to know what would happen later. In this case, I have no interest at all. Additionally, the cliffhanger is really random and doesn’t really give you anything to look forward to, so why would you want to come back?
Honestly, I’ve just realized if you have to describe the romance here, you can say friends to lovers, enemies to lovers, love triangle, or childhood friends to lovers, and somehow all of them will fit, yet none of them are effective. Ultimately, there’s nothing new in Tell Me Softly. There’s no emotional connection, and there’s literally nothing to look forward to, so I wouldn’t recommend this film to anyone. But if you’ve read the books and have some sort of clarity about what these characters are and feel like it’s worth your time, then you can give it a go. I’d still think spending that time on a Wattpad novel is more worth it than here. I give Tell Me Softly 1.5 out of 5 stars only for the kids trying their best to make this film watchable.
