The Broken Hearts Gallery is a little predictable and forcefully quirky but explores a niche subject and features a strong supporting cast with interesting characters.
The Broken Hearts Gallery follows the story of Lucy (Geraldine Viswanathan), a mid-20-something art gallery assistant living in New York and suffering through the heartbreak of a recent rough and very public breakup. However, Lucy’s biggest flaw is that she struggles to let go – literally. Her room is littered with trinkets, mementoes and straight-up junk, from any time she was happy or had memories she didn’t want to forget, leaving her room looking like a thrift shop. Through a comedy of errors, she meets Nick (Dacre Montgomery), a young handsome man renovating a bar who is struggling to find the money to finish it. This is where the Broken Hearts Gallery is born – Lucy creates a place where strangers from all across New York can come and for a donation leave behind a memento from a past love that they haven’t been able to let go of.
While The Broken Hearts Gallery was a cute story and a nice feel-good distraction from the chaos of 2020, it also tries very noticeably hard to be quirky. Lucy is a little forceful at times and seems to be written into the film as comic relief even though she’s the main character. The extent to which Lucy collected bits and pieces of her day to day life seemed unrealistic and unnecessary – her logic was to remember special occasions or people, but occasionally she seemed to really just be collecting junk and the items added to her collection (like a salt shaker from a 5-minute coffee shop conversation) seemed a little pointless. The bigger story of people coming together and being connected through heartbreak was a nice sentiment, it was just Lucy’s personal collection that felt a bit forced or over the top.
The supporting characters in The Broken Hearts Gallery make up for what Lucy’s character is sometimes lacking. Amanda is a personal highlight for me; she’s the deadpan, cynical yet supportive friend played by Molly Gordon (Booksmart, Life of the Party). She has a much more realistic view of Lucy’s ‘collection’ and is lovingly and supportively making it her mission to get rid of it. Their third roommate is Nadine (played by Hamilton’s Phillipa Soo?!) who is the added LGBTQIA+ representation and plays with it in a light-hearted way. Amanda’s boyfriend Jeff (Nathan Dales) was my favourite of the noticeable comic relief additions while Nick’s best friend Marcos (Arturo Castro) was a surprisingly sincere and lovely character.
Overall, The Broken Hearts Gallery is a nice feel-good movie. With a good soundtrack and a noticeably female-driven cast and story, it’s a solid effort for a directorial debut from female director Natalie Krinsky. It may not be high on my re-watch list, but it would make a good companion for anyone going through a recent heartbreak or struggling to throw out their old junk.
Score: 3/5