Reel Review Roundup

The Broken Hearts Gallery (M)

Directed by: Natalie Krinsky

Starring: Geraldine Viswanathan, Dacre Montgomery

Review by: Julian Wright

After each relationship break-up, New York art gallery assistant Lucy Gulliver (Geraldine Viswanathan) keeps a memento of her ex, whether it be a tie, shoelace or trinket.

Her sassy best friends/room-mates Amanda (Molly Gordon) and Nadine (Phillipa Soo) call it hoarding, but Lucy insists its honouring the relationship.

After Lucy is dumped and has an emotional breakdown in front of important guests at a work event, she is fired and in her fragile state mistakes Nick’s (Dacre Montgomery) car for a ride share.

The two hit it off and become business partners – Nick’s opening a trendy new hotel that will feature a broken hearts gallery curated by Lucy – relationship mementos donated by broken hearted New Yorkers.

Lucy and Nick become inseparable and the gallery idea is a social media smash, but in true rom-com fashion, it is not an easy road to love or success.

Just when you think there are no more fresh rom-com ideas, The Broken Hearts Gallery breathes new life into the genre.

It ticks all the cliche boxes: fun and bubbly unlucky in love lead, handsome love interest, eccentric sidekick gal pals and a quirky idea. But this time, the quirky idea actually has a lot of resonance, relatability and pathos.

There are some genuinely lovely ideas swirling around in this story – that all items (no matter how small or junky) have a story, finding good and artistic merit in everything, hanging on to precious memories but also learning when to let go of painful ones.

Sure it leads to an almost two hour experience, which makes this feel a little long as it sticks to the riskless rom-com routine and has an occasionally sluggish pace, but it never feels forced and is a joy to experience.

The reveal of why Lucy began holding onto items from people in her life is such an affecting moment and shows this film is just as much about creating realistic and well-rounded characters as it is committing to rom-com tropes.

Writer/director Natalie Krinsky shows she has a firm grasp on the genre and how to keep it fresh with some seemingly Mindy Kaling inspired lead character dialogue and quips.

Throw in a fun and frisky cast and you have a heartwarming winner.

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