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Geraldine Viswanathan has been steadily working her way through the coming-of-age subgenre, on her way to becoming a star. In the open-hearted romantic comedy “The Broken Hearts Gallery,” the charismatic whirlwind of an actress is vivacious and lovable, a young woman who desperately surrounds herself with tchotchkes, knick-knacks, and souvenirs as totems of failed relationships. Love might be fleeting, but those objects—even though some of them are literal trash—provide her with the permanence a relationship might not. It’s an unexpected basis for a rom-com, and Viswanathan throws herself into the material with a dazzlingly infectious energy.

Written and directed by Natalie Krinsky , “The Broken Hearts Gallery” follows 26-year-old Lucy (Viswanathan), who works as an assistant at the prestigious Woolf Gallery in New York City. She idolizes her boss, Eva Woolf ( Bernadette Peters ), and knows practically everything about Eva’s career and her perspective on art—information Lucy readily provides to her boyfriend and colleague at the gallery, Max ( Utkarsh Ambudkar ). To her longtime friends and roommates, law student Amanda ( Molly Gordon ) and model Nadine ( Phillipa Soo ), Lucy can’t stop gushing (“I just can’t believe he chose little old me,” she says), and she thinks that maybe Max will ask her to move in. Instead, she’s completely devastated when he dumps her and she loses her job on the same night.

In a meet-cute for our current age, a drunk and despondent Lucy plops herself into a stranger’s car, mistakenly believing that it’s her Lyft home, and in the kind of plot twist that could only exist in a rom-com, driver Nick ( Dacre Montgomery ) indulges her by dropping her off. After that first meeting, the two bump into each other again weeks later. Nick, who has been working on his dream boutique hotel for five years, is out of money and needs help keeping the project going. Lucy, still unemployed, alone, and steadily irritating her friends with her listlessness, is searching for a way to get rid of some of her broken-relationship detritus. In each other, Nick and Lucy sense opportunity: Maybe Lucy, with her art background, could assist with designing the interior of the hotel, and maybe Nick, with all this space on his hands, could house some of Lucy’s exes’ memorabilia.

So is born the Broken Hearts Gallery, a corner of Nick’s hotel where people can drop off the items they’ve clung to long after their romantic relationships have ended. Convinced that “There are broken people out there like me, people that need to let go and move on,” Lucy decides to use the tagline “Leave your heartbreak” to advertise the gallery. The result is a "Humans of New York"-style opportunity for people in the city to connect over shared loss and humanity, and that idea is the film’s freshest—an invitation for viewers to consider similar experiences in their own lives. More traditional to this genre is the resentful-turned-affectionate nature of Lucy and Nick’s relationship: When Lucy calls Nick a hoarder and Lucy calls Nick a pessimist, that’s the kind of competitive banter that we know eventually leads to love!

“The Broken Hearts Gallery” checks off a number of rom-com requirements, from character details like the protagonist’s job in the NYC art world, the composition of her friend group (a weird one and a lesbian one), and her obsession with an unattainable older man, to the setup of certain scenes, like an amorous karaoke performance and a spirited argument about the best way to survive the zombie apocalypse. All of those elements are recognizably familiar, but Krinsky’s script is simultaneously wry and earnest, building inner lives for these characters that feel genuine. Starting the film with a high school flashback helps explain Nadine and Amanda’s tolerance of Lucy’s collecting (“You’re basically an anthropologist … Nothing wrong with being sentimental,” they assure her), and the film spends enough time with the trio to demonstrate the depth of their friendship. Nadine and Amanda know to provide Lucy with a blanket, a box of tissues, a DVD of “Eternal Sunshine and the Spotless Mind,” and a bag of chips with a bottle of ranch dressing once she admits being dumped. They also know to urge her into action after weeks of letting her wallow; “Have you just been masturbating and braiding your hair for three weeks?” is their amazed reaction when they see her messy bed. Krinsky writes the trio with enough specificity to capture shared history and continued loyalty.

All of this is elevated by Viswanathan, whose confident performance makes clear her myriad talents. She was a wise-cracking scene stealer in the sex comedy “ Blockers ”; communicated great internal struggle as the titular Hala in Minhal Baig ’s portrait of a Muslim family; and gave millennials a dogged investigative journalist of their own in “Bad Education.” In “The Broken Hearts Gallery,” her broad smile gives life to zany dialogue like “I love her so much, it gives me diarrhea” (when discussing her respect for her boss) and “I’m in my mid-20s, I barely ever wash my face” (when trying to hold her own against Max’s new girlfriend). As the straight man to Viswanathan’s boundless energy, Montgomery is more controlled and downbeat, and the contrast works. Although certain elements of their bond, like a mutual fondness toward neon signs, feel too intentionally random, Viswanathan and Montgomery are believably comfortable with each other, and that ease underscores their steadily escalating romance.

Putting aside the amusing script and the entertaining cast, there are storytelling elements of “The Broken Hearts Gallery” that are irritatingly trite (including an allusion to a breakup with a certain President of the United States) and other narrative details that needed more time, in particular the root cause for Lucy’s item-gathering. Although the explanation is meaningful, that personality trait is so formative to who Lucy is that its justification could have been expanded into more than one scene. Still, “The Broken Hearts Gallery” is so committed in its empathy toward the unlucky in love, and benefits so much from Viswanathan’s vibrant performance in support of that compassion, that overlooking those flaws—just like rooting for Nick and Lucy—is easy to do.

For transparency’s sake, it feels important to state that this film was screened via link despite its availability only in theaters. The intent of this review is not to encourage or discourage anyone from attending a theatrical screening at this specific time. It is an analysis of the work itself for posterity. 

Roxana Hadadi

Roxana Hadadi is a film, television, and pop culture critic. She holds an MA in literature and lives outside Baltimore, Maryland.

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The Broken Hearts Gallery (2020)

Rated PG-13

108 minutes

Geraldine Viswanathan as Lucy

Dacre Montgomery as Nick

Suki Waterhouse as Chloe

Utkarsh Ambudkar as Max Vora

Nikki Duval as Willhemina

Molly Gordon as Amanda

Phillipa Soo as Nadine

• Natalie Krinsky

Cinematographer

• Alar Kivilo
• Shawn Paper
• Genevieve Vincent

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Review: Geraldine Viswanathan lights up the rom-com ‘The Broken Hearts Gallery’

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If Geraldine Viswanathan’s bubbly spirit could be bottled and distributed, the world would be a much brighter and funnier place. A breakout in the 2018 high school comedy “Blockers,” Viswanathan’s charm and charisma power the winning romantic comedy “The Broken Hearts Gallery,” the debut of writer-director Natalie Krinsky.

With pluck and wit in spades, Viswanathan’s character, Lucy, is a classic rom-com heroine. She’s a kooky, quirky art gallery assistant in New York City with a penchant for sentimental souvenirs that borders on hoarding and is the kind of leading lady with whom one can identify, or fall in love, and in the best-case scenario, a bit of both.

It’s Lucy’s open heart, often broken, that is the fulcrum of Krinsky’s film. After an embarrassing work incident and subsequent breakup with her suave superior, Max (Utkarsh Ambudkar), at the toney Woolf Gallery, Lucy descends into a depression surrounded by all of her old tchotchkes and trash that remind her of her many, many broken hearts, mementos that ensure all of these old loves were real, at one point. Her roommates, Nadine ( Phillipa Soo , outfitted in gloriously Sapphic ‘70s duds) and Amanda (Molly Gordon, delightfully sociopathic), demand Lucy get rid of it all, but where to put it?

Enter Nick (Dacre Montgomery): a dreamer in his own right, pouring his blood, sweat, and tears into a ramshackle brick building he plans to turn into the Chloe Hotel. Nick and Lucy keep running into each other after she mistakes his car for a ride share, and soon she’s swept him up into her tornado of oversharing and whimsy. She devises a plan to display her mementos in a gallery inside the hotel, along with a donation system, providing a space for collective catharsis, and a home for all the symbols of relationships gone by.

While the story is formulaic at times, peppered with implausible coincidences (as most rom-coms are), a somewhat ludicrous but inoffensive twist, and a heartstring-tugging backstory, “The Broken Hearts Gallery” works because of its cast, particularly Viswanathan , but also Soo, Gordon, and Montgomery, who is too sweet and pretty to read as anything but pure. Ambudkar gets to play against type as bad boy Max, but his innate swagger is subsumed by the character, a stereotypical jerk.

The lush production design by Zazu Myers, especially in the Chloe Hotel, and rich cinematography by Alar Kivilo make for a colorfully saturated fantasy of New York City that elevates the film. This is a big, juicy rom-com, a rarity these days on the big screen, though it plays just as well on the small.

“Show me yours, I’ll show you mine” is the ethos of the Broken Hearts Gallery, espoused by its proprietress. Sharing is caring, and as Lucy embraces the broken heart she wears on her sleeve, it becomes her greatest source of love, strength and creativity. “The Broken Hearts Gallery” is a celebration of vulnerability as a key component in matters of romance and of self-love, a notion that proves to be a moving message indeed.

‘The Broken Hearts Gallery’

Rated: PG-13, for sexual content throughout and some crude references, strong language and drug references Running time: 1 hour 48 minutes Playing: In general release where theaters are open

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‘The Broken Hearts Gallery’ Review: A Beguiling ‘Girls’ Lite Rom-Com

Geraldine Viswanathan captivates as a love memento collector in Natalie Krinsky's fun first feature.

By Owen Gleiberman

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Lucy ( Geraldine Viswanathan ), the heroine of “The Broken Hearts Gallery,” is a soulfully flip 26-year-old New York art gallery assistant with a problem, or a fixation, or maybe we should call it a ruling passion. She’s so invested in her romantic relationships that each time one of them ends, she holds onto the mementos from it and treats the objects as if they were more important than the ex she broke up with. She’ll save old shoelaces, a thimble from a Monopoly game, or a pink rubber piggy bank: anything that reminds of her of the bittersweet times that were. Her Brooklyn bedroom looks like a bag lady’s knickknack museum. She’s a hoarder of lost-love nostalgia.

The movie knows this, and cracks a lot of jokes about it (the H-word is used), but it also believes in her obsession; Lucy’s over-the-top reverence for the totems of the past marks her as a romantic of three dimensions. Natalie Krinsky, who wrote and directed “The Broken Hearts Gallery,” is an unheralded filmmaker (this is her first feature), and she has a witty and spirited commercial voice. Watching the film, you know you’re seeing an unabashed spawn of “Girls” and “Sex and the City,” a kind of anthropological Williamsburg careerist rom-com set, in this case, in a woke wonderland of post-feminist awareness.

Yet Krinksy earns her “Sex and the City” tropes, like the scene where Lucy, tearfully mascara-smeared after a spectacular public meltdown, has a meet-cute moment with Nick ( Dacre Montgomery ), climbing into the back of his silver Prius because she thinks it’s her Lyft ride (he gives her a lift anyway). Or the fact that she works for a celebrity art dealer who “discovered Cindy Sherman in a laundromat” and is played, in a delectable wised-up legend performance, by Bernadette Peters. Or a break-up montage set to the melancholy murmur of Billie Eilish’s “Everything I Wanted.” Or the comic sizzle of Lucy, given a chance she didn’t think she’d get, saying, “What? Did I drop acid and this is my ego death?” A line like that — and the way Viswanathan delivers it, as if she had 10 thoughts like it per minute — can spark you through a rom-com, and “The Broken Hearts Gallery” has a precociously witty synthetic tingle.

For a time during the 1990s, the cool profession for someone to have in a movie was to be an architect. For a brief moment, it was hip chef. But in “The Broken Hearts Gallery,” we hear a new one. Nick, the dude who’s not a Lyft driver, takes Lucy to the place he’s staying, which is so under construction, with power tools everywhere, that for a moment she thinks it’s a serial killer’s lair. But no. As he explains, the place is an old YMCA that he’s turning, with second-hand-chic ingenuity, into a boutique hotel. In a real do-you-want-to-feel-old statement, he says, “I’m building a place that feels like the spots I fell in love with when I first moved to New York.” Oh, yes, those halcyon, wistfully remembered boutique-hotel days of 2007!

Lucy and Nick spark each other, and Geraldine Viswanathan, so sly as the Columbo-like student reporter in “Bad Education” (she also came close to stealing “Blockers”), creates a character of such clear-the-air wit and longing that she puts a lot of the “dizzy” rom-com heroines of the ’90s to shame. She and Dacre Montgomery, from “Stranger Things” (you’d never guess that either one is Australian), look great together and spark each other the old-fashioned way: by building romantic tension with a platonic sense of play.

Yet she’s still hung up on Max (Utkarsh Ambudkar), the mildly sleazy gallery worker who two-timed her with his ex. To ease her heart, she comes up with an only-in-the-movies idea she can launch right in the lobby of Nick’s hotel: an outsider-art gallery that showcases people’s mementos of romantic loss. The mundane objects we all hold onto. (She calls it the Broken Heart Gallery.) As one of her two queen-of-snark roommates puts it, “Okay, so let me get this straight. Now you’re collecting other people’s junk in addition to your own?”

That this would ever become a hot idea, driven by a feature in New York magazine, is something you sort of have to roll with. But in these love-is-an-app days, it is often asked whether true romance is dead, and “The Broken Hearts Gallery” answers that in two charmingly interlocking ways. The movie says that romance has become a series of signifiers — and to that degree, it could be on life support. At the same time, every piece of detritus Lucy collects in her gallery contains the feelings that people have given it. (The characters tell their stories right into the camera, in the cornball digital equivalent of Warhol Screen Tests.) So romance is alive. Besides, the romantic comedy, as a form, is a series of signifiers. It’s the universal memento.

Lucy’s two longtime friends and roommates are an ace comedy team: Nadine (Phillipa Soo), who has dated and dumped so many gorgeous Russian models that she jokes about being poisoned by Vladimir Putin (Soo has a terrific scene in which she demonstrates how to give someone the heave-ho…gently), and Amanda (Molly Gordon), a law student who expresses her hostility by thinking of herself as a kind of murder junkie; her boyfriend (Nathan Dales) is a hipster who literally never says a word, the implication being that if he did he’d be dead. You could say these are characters out of a kind of “Girls” Lite, but just because they’re not deep doesn’t mean they’re not fun. “The Broken Hearts Gallery” pushes all the rom-com buttons but does it knowingly, with a spirit that embraces killer cynicism and then comes out the other side.

Reviewed online, Sept. 3, 2020. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 110 MIN.

• Production: A Sony TriStar release of a Stage 6 Films, No Trace Camping production. Producer: David Gross. Executive producers: Laurie May, Noah Segal, Natalie Krinsky, Chantelle Tabrizi, Andrew Robinson, Mathew Hart, Selena Gomez, Mandy Teefey, Mason Novick, Michelle Knudsen, Jesse Shapira, Jeff Arkuss, Josh Phillips.
• Crew: Director, screenplay: Natalie Krinsky. Camera: Alar Kivilo. Editor: Shawn Paper. Music: Genevieve Vincent.
• With: Geraldine Viswanathan, Dacre Montgomery, Molly Gordon, Phillipa Soo, Utkarsh Ambudkar, Bernadette Peters, Arturo Castro, Suki Waterhouse, Megan Ferguson, Sheila McCarthy, Nathan Dales, Ego Nwodim.

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“The Broken Hearts Gallery,” Reviewed: A Rom-Com Showcase for the Great Geraldine Viswanathan

By Richard Brody

At a time when romantic comedies are often enfeebled either by sentiment or cynicism, saccharine tones or absurd premises, a new one, “The Broken Hearts Gallery,” written and directed by Natalie Krinsky (and opening on Friday in some place called “theatres”), bridges the gap with a high concept. It is, unfortunately, a concept so high that it rarely touches the ground, and its theoretical ingenuity leaves plenty of empty dramatic space to be filled. That work is done by its lead actress, Geraldine Viswanathan, who shows, as she did in previous roles in “Blockers” and “Bad Education,” that she’s among the most talented performers of her generation. She’s only in need of a project at the level of her artistry. In “The Broken Hearts Gallery”—Krinsky’s first feature—Viswanathan’s performance lends the movie its sole impression of vitality and spontaneity, to go with its one bright light of conceptual inspiration.

“The Broken Hearts Gallery” is a good bad movie, one that gathers peripheral pleasures around its hollow center and the Tinkertoy construction of the plot. Viswanathan plays Lucy Gulliver, a twenty-six-year-old Brooklynite who aspires to found her own art gallery and, when the action starts, is working as a gallery assistant—but not for long. She’s also dating one of her bosses, Max (Utkarsh Ambudkar), the gallery’s thirty-five-year-old second-in-command. At a company event, when he publicly dumps her for his ex, Amelia (Tattiawna Jones), a Francophile doctor, Lucy drinks too much, makes a scene in front of clients, and gets fired by the gallery owner and founder, Eva Woolf (who pronounces her first name with a short “e”—a spirited archness that’s played to the joyful hilt by Bernadette Peters). In chaos and panic, Lucy cute-meets Nick (Dacre Montgomery), who is trying to renovate—hands-on—an abandoned Y.M.C.A. and turn it into a boutique hotel.

If exhaustion hasn’t set in from all that setup, know that Lucy has a long string of failed relationships, and her longtime way of mourning them is by keeping—or, as her roommates, Amanda (Molly Gordon) and Nadine (Phillipa Soo), say, hoarding—souvenirs of her exes. Lucy visits Nick at the half-built, scrap-laden renovation site while carrying a trash bag of those souvenirs (long story); he suddenly pulls a tie—Max’s—out of the bag and hangs it on a piece of drywall, which Lucy is suddenly inspired to label the Broken Heart Gallery (singular). The next day, she has another inspiration: she photographs it and puts the picture up on social media, it goes viral, attracts other souvenir donors (as well as some financial donors), and puts Lucy nearly instantly on the art-world map (complete with a two-page spread in New York ).

Given the project’s genesis from the spontaneous collaboration of Lucy and Nick, their couple-hood is in the cards from the start—yet getting them together takes more than an hour of machinations, a tedious obstacle course that includes winks and nods at serious life consequences, but resolves them with what might as well be a wave of the magic wand (usually off-screen). Whenever the substance of the gallery, and of Lucy’s devotion to it, comes to the fore, the movie comes to life; but those moments are all too brief, and the movie all too jumpy for its substance to be developed. (It would be good to see more of the empathetic, therapeutic element to the gallery, when Lucy video-records the donors to the museum telling the tales of heartbreak that are behind the objects that they contribute, like Lucy, of “Peanuts,” with the five-cent psychiatrist’s booth.)

Viswanathan never rests, because the movie won’t let her. The script is more or less completely inside out—most of the actions and relationship moments that the story evokes are kept rigorously off-screen, in the interest of fabricating suspense, reveals, or fantasy. Instead, her performance has to generate the movie’s semblance of action. With no job and no income, after three weeks of slothing about depressed and a day of acquaintance with Nick’s hotel, Lucy volunteers to work for him—for free—in exchange for developing the Broken Heart Gallery there. (“I can paint, I can saw, I can lift and lay tile, grout—that’s a thing,” she tells him.) Between Lucy’s handmade gallery and Nick’s artisanal hotel, the movie is a study in industrial arts and crafts, yet the two are not shown hoisting anything heavier than a thumbtack (with one small plot-pointed exception) or working at anything more strenuous than karaoke. The story pivots on matters of money, which then shows up by the bagful, with minimal fuss and unexpressed motives. Lucy is passionate about art but hardly talks about it; Nick’s life in hospitality is tossed off in a one-liner that leaves a lot to unpack. The story involves friends becoming collaborators becoming lovers, but the loam of the relationship, the talk on which a friendship can be based and a relationship can be built, never happens: the characters are identifiable at first sight.

Yet Krinsky manages to make these skittery contrivances bounce vivaciously from moment to moment by way of copious, strenuous, idiosyncratic dialogue that does very little of what dialogue does at its best—express emotions and ideas, bring experiences to the fore, crystallize problems and seek resolutions. Instead we get snippy-snappy jousting and joshing of purely ornamental import, which the cast uses as a springboard for gymnastic verbal virtuosity, and, in Viswanathan’s case especially, for ornamental flourishes. Ably seconded by Soo, Gordon, and Peters, along with Arturo Castro and Megan Ferguson, as Nick’s friends, and with Montgomery as an ably stolid foil, she lends every twist and tweak a glittery wit, and every facet of every plot point an emphatic specificity. Her comedic talents are distinctively cinematic: fixed and darting glances, raised or lowered eyebrows, a tilt of the head, a sudden hesitation all require a camera to magnify and isolate them amid the kaleidoscopic whirl. The camera work isn’t virtuosic to match, but it’s at least attentive.

The attention remains, however, somewhat nearsighted. The movie’s cast is admirably wide-ranging, yet little is done with its diversity—here, identity is purely visual, as if merely decorative. Though set in New York, the city is hardly recognizable at street level: the best city scenes are in the credit sequence at the head of the film, a fantasy-infused vision in which giant-sized souvenirs (a padlock, a thimble, a billiard ball, a salt shaker, a snow globe) block New York streets and sidewalks and even a subway platform. (Much of the movie was shot on location in Toronto.)

It turns out (as I discovered far into writing this review) that the gallery at the center of the film, or some version thereof, actually exists, or existed, in Croatia , and inspired Krinsky to build a story of personal import—rooted in her own experience of breakup and firing—around it. The element of documentary—whether of the filmmaker’s life experience, the emotionally charged collaborative art venture, the New York credit sequence, or the actors’ supercharged and overdriven performances—invests the movie with a powerful engine to drive elements of whimsical and symbolic fantasy. Instead, the fantasy takes over and, like the sidecar in “Duck Soup,” leaves its source of power behind.

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The Broken Hearts Gallery Reviews

It was the feel-good burst of fun that I needed during this year and I will proudly voice my love for the film.

Full Review | Feb 29, 2024

The Broken Hearts Gallery is tooth-numbingly sweet, just like all the great rom-coms that have come before it. It’s the kind of movie that makes the world seem a little brighter.

Full Review | Jul 25, 2023

As the lead of The Broken Hearts Gallery, Viswanathan elevates the movie as a strong and memorable character. Her performance is confident and engaging and brings an energetic presence in every scene.

Full Review | Jul 20, 2023

Viswanathan is such a winner that The Broken Hearts Gallery is able to overcome whatever other problems it has.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | May 13, 2022

There's nothing particularly special about The Broken Hearts Gallery.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Aug 10, 2021

Viswanathan is effervescent in the lead role and her support team get some sweet lines too from this sassy, self aware (mildly-cheesey) script.

Full Review | Jul 29, 2021

Explicit dialogue plus a #metoo awareness adds edge to the project, which succeeds at winning, rather than breaking, hearts.

Full Review | Jul 19, 2021

It's all a bit saccharine, but if you're looking for the kind of film that feels like a hug, this'll be perfect.

Full Review | Jun 24, 2021

You won't get the relationship lessons we received from films like "500 Days of Summer" or "He's Just Not That Into You". Instead, you're given a heavy dose of laughter, as it can sometimes be the best medicine to heal heartache.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Jun 24, 2021

Funny, charming and a total joy.

Full Review | May 22, 2021

It's fun, but its desperate desire to be liked eventually wears you out.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 2, 2021

Ultimately, The Broken Hearts Gallery. which counts pop star Selena Gomez among its executive producers, hits a lot more right notes than wrong ones.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Feb 21, 2021

The Broken Hearts Gallery is a perfectly pleasant movie with actors who have winning personalities. It's unlikely to garner many raves, but as a nice distraction amid the bad stuff going on in the world, it fits the bill.

Full Review | Feb 5, 2021

A showcase for the considerable charisma, sincerity and comedy chops of star Geraldine Viswanathan.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jan 29, 2021

Falls into the fast food section of film; it's pleasant and enjoyable enough when consumed, but lacks that real depth that leaves you fully satisfied.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 4, 2021

A total feel-good romantic comedy that's a great vehicle for Geraldine Viswanathan and the standout supporting cast.

Full Review | Nov 17, 2020

The Broken Hearts Gallery is an endearing and affable rom-com that overcomes its predictability, continuity gaffes and insistent comedy with a fantastic cast, an interesting premise and amusingly droll dialogue from writer/director Natalie Krinsky.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Oct 13, 2020

Geraldine Viswanathan is hugely engaging as the memorabilia-obsessed New York gallery assistant.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 7, 2020

Written and directed by Natalie Krinsky, her direction allows both leads to find their ground and play their hands. I enjoyed both performances and surprises along the way.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 3, 2020

The chemistry between our leads is beyond charming, and this is a film that nails its target audience.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Oct 3, 2020

Screen Rant

The broken hearts gallery review: the feel-good rom-com we need right now.

The Broken Hearts Gallery is overflowing with charm and personality, making it exactly the kind of fun, feel-good romantic comedy needed right now.

As a genre, romantic comedies have seen a resurgence in recent years, largely thanks to streaming services like Netflix, but The Broken Hearts Gallery is the now-rare theatrical release. There was a time when all rom-coms released in theaters, of course, but with more and more blockbusters earning higher and higher box office tallies, mid-range movies have had to find other ways of reaching their audiences. For rom-coms, they've been relegated to the made-for-TV and streaming spheres - with a few exceptions, like Crazy Rich Asians . But though fewer rom-coms release in theaters, there's still plenty of interest in the genre and writer-director Natalie Krinsky's movie is an excellent addition to the genre.  The Broken Hearts Gallery is overflowing with charm and personality, making it exactly the kind of fun, feel-good romantic comedy needed right now.

The movie follows twenty-something Lucy (Geraldine Viswanathan), who's dumped by her boyfriend Max (Utkarsh Ambudkar) and fired from her gallery assistant job on the same night. After weeks of mourning the relationship, Lucy's friends - Amanda (Molly Gordon) and Nadine (Phillipa Soo) - urge her to get rid of the mementos she's saved from not just her relationship with Max but other past boyfriends. When Lucy runs into Nick (Dacre Montgomery), who's trying to open a bar/hotel but struggling to get it completed, she inadvertently stumbles onto a place to put all her mementos. Together, Lucy and Nick work to open the Chloe Hotel, to complete his vision and give her a location to showcase the pieces from others brought in to the Broken Hearts Gallery. Of course, Lucy and Nick's relationship grows deeper, but they'll have to get over their respective baggage in order to move forward.

Related:  Every Major Movie Still Releasing In 2020

The Broken Hearts Gallery serves as Krinsky's directorial debut, though she's no stranger to writing, having written on Gossip Girl , among other TV shows, and penning the 2005 novel Chloe Does Yale . In The Broken Hearts Gallery , Krinsky brings a sharply witty and warmly affectionate voice in this rom-com, delivering the right balance of cheesiness and personality so that the movie feels fresh even as it follows standard conventions of the genre. It can be incredibly difficult to offer a fresh perspective in rom-coms, since the genre does stick to strict conventions, but Krinsky makes it look effortless. It helps that the premise of her story is rather unique, seemingly inspired - albeit loosely - by the real-life Museum of Broken Relationships, which has held exhibitions around the world. Altogether, Krinsky's script and directing makes The Broken Hearts Gallery a breath of fresh air in the romantic comedy genre.

What really makes The Broken Hearts Gallery work, though, is the two leads: Viswanathan's Lucy and Montgomery's Nick. The young stars have the sizzling chemistry needed to make the movie sparkle. Viswanathan has a bubbly and magnetic charm as Lucy, who wears her heart on her sleeve and is all the more endearing for it. Meanwhile, the way Montgomery's Nick looks at Lucy will make even the most cold-hearted viewers swoon. As a pair, Viswanathan and Montgomery are rock-solid romance leads, but The Broken Hearts Gallery also boasts a perfectly cast supporting roster, with Gordon and Soo bringing plenty of humor as the best friends. Arturo Castro also turns in an entertaining performance as Nick's friend Marcos. The movie even features Bernadette Peters in a small, but fun role as gallerist Eva Woolf. So while, Viswanathan and Montgomery are the linchpins to The Broken Hearts Gallery's success, the whole cast truly comes together to make the movie as funny and compelling as it is.

One of the appeals of romantic comedies is that, when done right, they're a cathartic kind of comfort-food cinema and  The Broken Hearts Gallery  is exactly that. There's comfort in the inevitability of a happily ever after, and it's in the road to that ending in which the best romantic comedies shine. In The Broken Hearts Gallery , Krinsky delivers a delightfully entertaining road to the happily ever after. Since that path is littered with broken hearts, the movie doesn't shy away from the pain of relationships, but that makes the moments of love and healing all the more compelling when shown in contrast . Ultimately, The Broken Hearts Gallery is a feel-good rom-com that offers a fun and entertaining journey through a broken relationship and the beginning of a burgeoning love story.

As such, fans of romantic comedies, or anyone in need of a pick-me-up, would do well with checking out The Broken Hearts Gallery . Since the movie is releasing exclusively in theaters, potential audiences will have to venture to their local cinema to watch it, and will have to make their own decisions on whether it's safe to return to movie theaters. While The Broken Hearts Gallery would no doubt be a fun film to watch in theaters, it would also make for a perfect movie night at home; it's not necessarily a must-see-in-theaters kind of film. But for those looking for a light-hearted, hilarious and just plain fun romantic comedy, The Broken Hearts Gallery is certainly worth a watch.

Next: The Broken Hearts Gallery Movie Trailer

The Broken Hearts Gallery starts playing in U.S. theaters Friday, September 11. It is 108 minutes long and rated PG-13 for sexual content throughout and some crude references, strong language and drug references.

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‘The Broken Hearts Gallery’ Review: A Star Turn Leads This Slick Fantasy About a Messy Breakup

Ryan lattanzio, deputy editor, film.

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“Breakups,” as millennial comedian Cat Cohen once said , “are cool because it’s like you have a best friend and then they die.” What do you do after the end of the affair to memorialize what was, and what now isn’t? Natalie Krinsky’s  romantic comedy “ The Broken Hearts Gallery ” doesn’t quite get at the psyche-shattering, soul-reconfiguring effects of a breakup — the exhausting burden it casts on your friends, the face-melting substance abuse, the self-doubt, the social-media stalking in the aftermath. Don’t forget the vomiting.

But what this sweet, fleet-footed little trifle does capture is how to start a whole new you after you and me is no more. This certainly makes for an overly idealistic experience, but “Broken Hearts Gallery” is a far-cry from the algorithm-driven uncanny valleys of romantic human behavior as seen on Netflix’s versions of the same kind of film, and it features a totally delightful turn from Geraldine Viswanathan as the central brokenhearted who hatches an enviably creative way to move on.

Lucy Gulliver (Viswanathan) is a 20-something living in (where else but) Brooklyn working at (where else but) an elite gallery space, navigating the tricky waters of (what else but) dating life as a millennial in New York City. She has a solid support system of fast-talking, equally existentially adrift roommates, Nadine (Phillipa Soo) and Amanda (Molly Gordon). Lucy has a rich, handsome boyfriend, Max (Utkarsh Ambudkar), with a place in the West Village (but unfortunately an almost-topknot that really needs to go).

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That all comes crashing down when Lucy learns Max is really dating a fancy lady who’s just returned from Paris and can’t stop saying “Bonjour!” Lucy, tragically, learns this while introducing Max at an event at her gallery of unemployment, run by the imperious and envied Eva Woolf (a perfectly cast Bernadette Peters), and drunkenly sobs her tale of woe into the microphone. This debasing spectacle costs Lucy her job, and her relationship, and when she arrives home a mess, her roommates are quick to literally mobilize with bottles of wine and a copy of “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” on DVD.

It turns out that, all this time, Lucy has been a bit of an emotional hoarder. In her cluttered bedroom, she’s buried herself in souvenirs from relationships past. “It was like hooking up in a mausoleum,” one ex tells him when she tries to offload his stuff. It’s all a little creepy. But coincidentally, she keeps running into Nick (Dacre Montgomery), the handsome guy she mistook for an Uber driver the night of her big blowup at the gallery.

Audiences can see where this is all heading from outer space, and “The Broken Hearts Gallery” doesn’t try to get around the fact that it’s utterly predictable, which is a plus. Max is trying to open a boutique hotel — ominously named The Chloe, for a reason we discover later — but without the necessary cash, he’s right now sitting on the empty space. Lucy decides to turn it, in the meantime, into the Broken Hearts Gallery, a museum of people to bring unwanted artifacts from broken relationships. (There is, in fact, something just like this in Los Angeles called the Museum of Broken Relationships.)

Lucy’s neat idea ushers some colorful supporting characters into and out of the movie with their sad, sometimes pathetic, sometimes funny stories of their various attachments to objects from relationships past. (Hollywood, please hire Megan Ferguson for more work.) But as Max starts to sneak back into the picture, and Lucy is clearly growing attracted to Nick, who is clearly growing attracted to her as affirmed by the moment he lures into the secret bar he’s built in his (what else but) loft apartment for a nightcap, things are about to get messy.

But worry not. All will be resolved in this tidy picture. “The Broken Hearts Gallery” is pure glossy fantasy, though Viswanathan’s puckish and self-deprecating performance suggests a greater mess waiting to break out of this slick offering. (For all its sleekness, Alar Kivilo’s cinematography deftly captures the patchwork textures of Brooklyn.)

That’s not to say the film by Krinsky, making her feature debut after a writer on shows like “Gossip Girl” and “Grey’s Anatomy,” is phony. The emotions, and Lucy’s troubles, are very real. “Broken Hearts” just doesn’t quite hit the marrow of life during the free-fall after a breakup, and the film also never manages to make us feel whatever Lucy appears to have felt for Max, who isn’t all that appealing and mostly comes off as a tech-bro douchebag. But we’ve all been there, haven’t we? “The Broken Hearts Gallery” will fit snugly on the shelf for tweens and teens as a source of comfort and maybe even empowerment, an ode to rebuilding, when the dissolution of a relationship leaves you feeling like a husk of yourself.

“The Broken Hearts Gallery” will open in select U.S. markets on Friday, September 11 from Sony Pictures.

As new movies open in theaters during the COVID-19 pandemic, IndieWire will continue to review them whenever possible. We encourage readers to follow the  safety precautions   provided by CDC and health authorities. Additionally, our coverage will provide alternative viewing options whenever they are available.

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The Broken Hearts Gallery review – smart romcom with a breakout star

Geraldine Viswanathan stands out in this conventional but funny would-be romcom of the summer

G eraldine Viswanathan is a 25-year-old Australian actor and comedian of Indian descent who has appeared in a handful of movie-stealing supporting roles, including Blockers and The Package. Now comes a romcom vehicle for her leading actor talents, written and directed by Natalie Krinsky (whose script credits include Gossip Girl and Grey’s Anatomy ). The Broken Hearts Gallery was supposed to be the big romcom of the summer – a little something for the ladies while their beaux piled into Tenet, possibly. Finally arriving in cinemas this weekend, it is something of a letdown: a funny but conventional glossy romcom. But there is no messing with Viswanathan, who is undoubtedly the main attraction.

She plays funny and unfiltered Lucy, an art gallery assistant who has a quirky-stroke-creepy collection of mementos from past relationships cluttering her bedroom in a Brooklyn flatshare. She is dating her boss, Max (Utkarsh Ambudkar), an art-world poser whose studious man-bun is a dead giveaway to hidden shallows. After she makes a drunken show of herself at a work event, Lucy is hit with a double-whammy of getting fired and being dumped by Max. The plot is default romcom but Krinksy’s rams her script with smart-relatable lines. “I bet she has an amazing but crazy skincare routine,” whispers Lucy in awe after meeting Max’s impressive new doctor girlfriend.

Lucy is a character with Bridget Jones , Sex and the City and Girls in her DNA, but Viswanathan brings something of her own to the role: an excitable sense of fun and fast-talking wit. You feel she has the sharpness for the lines she delivers, and her charisma goes a long way when Lucy meets bland, unthreatening Nick (Stranger Things’ Dacre Montgomery), who is opening a boutique hotel in Brooklyn. Lucy finds her niche installing a gallery in the foyer – collecting strangers’ heartbreak stories and breakup trinkets.

Viswanathan has said the only role she expected to play in a romantic comedy as a woman of colour was the best friend; this film is pure romcom fantasy but Broken Hearts Gallery is radical in one important respect: challenging the film industry’s perceptions of what a leading woman looks like.

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The broken hearts gallery, common sense media reviewers.

Upbeat heroine anchors whimsical romcom; edgy sex jokes.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Put your pain to positive use. Focus is on taking

Characters don't always make the right decision, b

Frank (though not especially graphic) talk about s

Strong language includes "ass," "bitch," "goddamn,

Brands mentioned as punchlines, including Halo vid

Drinking in work, social, celebratory situations:

Parents need to know that The Broken Hearts Gallery is a romantic comedy executive-produced by Selena Gomez. It's edgy but not explicit, and it's completely in step with the way real young adults speak, behave, and interact. That includes some strong language ("bitch," "s--t," etc.), sex-positive attitudes,…

Positive Messages

Put your pain to positive use. Focus is on taking a healthy approach to romance: letting go of past relationships, realizing they allow us to grow, opening up to be available for a new one. Also emphasizes value of strong, supportive friendships, unconditional self-acceptance. Models the idea that successful relationships are based on communication and trust.

Positive Role Models

Characters don't always make the right decision, but they communicate with one another honestly and without pretense -- they represent what real friendship looks like. Diverse representation in terms of race, ethnicity, body type, sexual identity. Women are self-confident, successful, and (mostly) sure of themselves; female friends are supportive and loving.

Violence & Scariness

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Frank (though not especially graphic) talk about sex/sexual situations; clearly sex-positive perspective. One scene shows a couple lying in bed together after sex, covered to their armpits by sheets, mentioning plans to have sex again. Passionate kissing. Friends discuss masturbation. Sex toy and packaged condom shown. The film is about moving on after a relationship ends; a wide variety of couples discuss their relationships, all with equal weight.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Strong language includes "ass," "bitch," "goddamn," "hell," "s--tty," and a joking insult: "d--kmonster." "Sweet Jesus!" is said as an exclamation. Some sexual slang, but body parts are properly identified as "breasts," "penis," "vagina."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Brands mentioned as punchlines, including Halo video game, Uber, Lyft, and Listerine. Apple products with logo on display, implying potential product placement.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Drinking in work, social, celebratory situations: tequila, whiskey, wine. Main character ignores a co-worker's warning not to drink too much at a work event (in an effort to gain courage), which results in negative consequences. A cigarette is shown as a prop, mentioned in a positive fashion. Smoking marijuana is mentioned as unattractive. Joke about dropping acid.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Broken Hearts Gallery is a romantic comedy executive-produced by Selena Gomez . It's edgy but not explicit, and it's completely in step with the way real young adults speak, behave, and interact. That includes some strong language ("bitch," "s--t," etc.), sex-positive attitudes, and jokes about drugs, drinking, and sex (one including a sex toy). As far as actual sex scenes, there's only one, and it takes place mostly after the fact, with the couple in question talking while covered by sheets. Characters drink frequently in social situations (mostly whiskey and wine), and the plot kicks into gear when lead character Lucy ( Geraldine Viswanathan ) drinks too much at a work event after being warned by a co-worker to slow down. The film offers a wide range of diversity in its characters -- something that's too often been scarce in mainstream romcoms -- and focuses on taking a healthy approach to romance, promoting the value of communication and trust. It also emphasizes the value of strong, supportive friendships among women and models powerful self-acceptance. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Based on 3 parent reviews

Super fun & cute GNO movie

Cute movie •, what's the story.

Lucy ( Geraldine Viswanathan ) is a romantic 26-year-old art gallery assistant who literally holds onto her past breakups: She stores and displays mementos left behind. On the same night that she loses her boyfriend and her job, Lucy meets Nick ( Dacre Montgomery from Stranger Things ) and is inspired to create THE BROKEN HEARTS GALLERY, a space dedicated to trinkets let go by the brokenhearted.

Is It Any Good?

This is a snappy, sensational romantic comedy with a wonderfully optimistic main character. The quirky premise about a young woman who physically can't let go of the past, stubbornly holding on to little items from her exes, is completely sold by Viswanathan. When we first meet Lucy, it's not under the best of circumstances: She's having trouble moving on after a breakup and isn't taking it well. But Viswanathan's magnetic personality lets us see the humanity behind Lucy's obsessiveness and absolutely fall in love with her: This is the friend you want by your side. Together with her sympathetic and protective friends Amanda ( Molly Gordon ) and Nadine ( Phillipa Soo ), they're an ideal trio -- together for the tough times while also lovingly calling each other out on their nonsense.

Writer-director Natalie Krinsky looks like she could be that once-in-a-decade voice who captures her generation -- and her gender -- with smart, witty dialogue; she's stepping into the footprints left by Lena Dunham , Diablo Cody , and Nora Ephron . Her characters have an aspirational patter, but, at the same time, it's exactly how today's 20-somethings talk. With an irreverent, feminist self-awareness, expressed via barbs about patriarchal society and men who are baffled by how to respond to unwarranted accusations, it's all so of the moment. At times, some of the acting comes off a little weak -- likely the result of Krinsky being a first-time director -- but it's completely forgivable as she delivers a fantastically fun film. Like many love stories aimed at women, it's a female fantasy in many ways -- that our ideas are accepted, that our opinions are valued, that we're loved and accepted for who we are as we are -- but that's how we change the world, right? If life imitates art, Lucy's world is a nice place to live.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the positive representations in The Broken Hearts Gallery . How do the characters here compare to those you've seen in other Hollywood romcoms? Why is representation in the media important?

How is drinking depicted? Does the film normalize or glamorize it? Do the characters face realistic consequences for their actions? Why does that matter?

In what ways do you think the film reflects real life, and in what ways is it a fantasy?

How is friendship depicted here? Is that typical for movies that portray female friendship? How do friends help you cope with the ups and downs of life?

How do the characters show that they value open, honest communication ? Why is that an important character strength ?

Movie Details

• In theaters : September 11, 2020
• On DVD or streaming : November 17, 2020
• Cast : Geraldine Viswanathan , Dacre Montgomery , Utkarsh Ambudkar
• Director : Natalie Krinsky
• Inclusion Information : Female actors, Indian/South Asian actors
• Studio : TriStar Pictures
• Genre : Romance
• Topics : Arts and Dance , Friendship
• Character Strengths : Communication
• Run time : 108 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : sexual content throughout and some crude references, strong language and drug references
• Last updated : December 28, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

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‘the broken hearts gallery’: film review.

Geraldine Viswanathan stars as a young aspiring gallerist who turns clutter into art at a hotel run by her love interest in 'The Broken Hearts Gallery,' a feature debut from writer-director Natalie Krinsky.

By Leslie Felperin

Leslie Felperin

Contributing Film Critic

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According to the iron-clad definitions provided by two or three sites on the World Wide Web machine, millennials are people born between 1981 and 1996. That places the cast of 26-years-old-and-up characters in feature rom-com The Broken Hearts Gallery on the younger end of that generation, so old enough to have post-college jobs and some anxiety about making rent. That said, they’re not so old as to really have much to worry about other than hanging out, tending to the virtual gardens of their social media feeds and living their best lives. Like Friends in the mid-1990s and Girls in the 2010s, this offers a portrait of blithe, horny twentysomething New Yorkers — only here writer-director Natalie Krinsky’s portrait of a generation is markedly more diverse in terms of ethnicity, sexual and gender identity and body shape because, duh, it’s 2020.

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And yet, despite all its timely trappings, in a much more profound, molecular way this boy-meets-girl love story is as formulaic as any Irene Dunne, Doris Day or Kate Hudson vehicle, from the meet-cute to the extravagant gesture/declaration-of-love climax. Self-mocking irony, the salt that tempers the sweetness in the best, most enduring romantic comedies, has been strangely skimped on. Perhaps the naïve earnestness of Broken Hearts —  as it works the machinery of the genre’s rusty tropes, like a hipster getting a flea-market wind-up record player working — is the most 2020 thing about it.

Release date: Sep 11, 2020

Nevertheless, there are a few charming moments when Krinsky wittily tweaks expectations. For example, there’s a low-key pursuit at one point, where our heroine Lucy (vivid, effervescent Geraldine Viswanathan of Blockers and Hala ) hotfoots it to catch up with ex-boyfriend Max (Utkarsh Ambudkar) in the streets. He slides by a charity worker as if she were no more interesting than a panhandler or a fire hydrant; Lucy, even though she’s in a rush to keep up with Max, actually stops to sign the petition because it’s for Planned Parenthood.

A few more of those kinds of spiky, risky gags would have been welcome, especially as it sometimes feels as if the film has had all its edges sanded down by either real or internalized test screenings and focus groups to make it as broadly appealing as possible. Lucy, for instance, is obviously of South Asian descent, but that’s no more a matter to be discussed than her generous bust size, the Jewishness of her friend Amanda (Molly Gordon) or their other friend Nadine’s (Phillipa Soo from Hamilton ) preference for dating women, especially Russian models. Ethnicity and sexual preference are never a problem, never challenging, which is lovely but also a little weird in its frictionless utopianism.

Indeed, the only thing that is a problem for Lucy is her inability to let go of stuff — literally. We’re talking plastic cups and wrinkled but unopened condom packets, all mementos of all the failed relationships Lucy has ever been in. Her bedroom in the apartment she shares with Nadine and Amanda is chock-full of the stuff, a personal quirk that’s either a sign of hoarding monomania or kind of cute. “I live in a cave of souvenirs,” she tries to explain to her friends in the opening scene. “Like the little mermaid!”

The prince she saves from a near shipwreck is Nick (Dacre Montgomery of  Stranger Things , like Viswanathan doing a bang-up job of disguising his natural Australian accent), an affable Everybro sort of guy who goes along with it when Lucy mistakes him for a ride-share driver. The wreck he’s still trapped in is a former YMCA that he’s painstakingly refurbishing by hand to turn it into a boutique hotel, with an assist from builder friend Marcos (Arturo Castro).

When Lucy loses her job in a gallery (run by the eerily ageless Bernadette Peters ), she volunteers to help Nick fix up the hotel, especially when she hits on an idea to create an installation there that exhibits totems, both from her own collection and other people’s, from her now dissolved romances. The first item on display is one of Max’s ties, for instance, and the next day someone staples a map on the wall too. Once Lucy puts out the call for donations, strangers are lining up to drop off ex-boyfriend’s yarmulkes, empty body casts, Day of the Dead skulls and so on — until what becomes the Broken Hearts Gallery gets a profile in New York magazine, the ultimate hipster badge of honor.

It’s a great concept for a gallery — and has been ever since something much like it was thought up by Croatian film industry professional Olinka Vistica and her ex-partner, artist Drazen Grubisic, who founded a crowd-sourced collection of mementos that came to be known as the Museum of Broken Relationships in Zagreb, putting on their first exhibition in 2006. Since then, the museum has had pop-up shows and collection points in over 50 locations around the world, including a space in Hollywood that’s since closed.

Now, this isn’t to say that Krinsky and her colleagues plagiarized the idea, but it’s a shame that Vistica and Grubisic’s brainchild isn’t at least name-checked here in the credits, let alone in the dialogue. Also, it seems fitting that the Broken Hearts Gallery in the film seems exclusively devoted to tokens of moribund romances, whereas the museum has a broader, more complex approach, taking in remainders from not just dead love affairs but also severed friendships and lost loved ones. One of the powerful exhibits in the Zagreb site, for instance, is a suicide note written by a donor’s mother.

There is only one parent in The Broken Hearts Gallery , played by Sheila McCarthy, a character who has memory trouble. Indeed, aside from her, the gallerist played by Peters and a few silent elders in a care home, there is practically no one of note in the film over 35 or under 25. As such, it presents a strange snapshot of young people talking just among themselves, presumably for an audience expected to be much like them, or maybe a little younger. (It has a PG-13 rating – there’s sex mentioned but nothing explicit is ever shown.)

That means for anyone not in the very specific demographic group depicted, the experience of watching this is like being trapped in a tiny downtown club, where the food isn’t that good and the portions are tiny.

Cast: Geraldine Viswanathan, Dacre Montgomery, Utkarsh Ambudkar, Molly Gordon, Phillipa Soo, Arturo Castro, Suki Waterhouse, Sheila McCarthy, Bernadette Peters, Nathan Dales, Ego Nwodim, Megan Ferguson, Nikki Duval, Randy Choi, Taylor Hill, Tricia Black Production: A Sony Pictures release of a Tristar/Stage 6 Films presentation of a No Trace Camping production Director/screenwriter: Natalie Krinsky Producers: David Gross Executive producers: Laurie May, Noah Segal, Natalie Krinsky, Chantelle Tabrizi, Andrew Robinson, Mathew Hart, Selena Gomez , Mandy Teefey, Mason Novick, Michelle Knudsen, Jesse Shapira, Jeff Arkuss, Josh Phillips Director of photography: Alar Kivilo Editor: Shawn Paper Production designer: Zazu Myers Costume designer: Lea Carlson Music: Genevieve Vincent Music supervisor: Melany Mitchell Casting: Jennifer Smith, Lisa Zagoria, Jenny Lewis, Sara Kay

  PG-13; 108 minutes

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The Broken Hearts Gallery review – quirky and absurdly funny

It’s a shame that movies like The Broken Hearts Gallery will have trouble finding an audience this year. Many up-and-coming performer’s careers will end up not getting the boost they sorely needed. The new rom-com from writer and director Natalie Krinsky is a very funny movie with a handful of standout comic turns, most notably carried by a luminous, breakout performance by the upcoming actress Geraldine Viswanathan ( Blockers ), who steals the show. Which begs the question, if no one is there to watch her, did it even happen?

Viswanathan plays Lucy, a hopeless romantic and art gallery student who can’t let go of the past. She has kept a memento from every failed relationship (yikes) and subsequently cannot allow any personal growth to move into a better relationship future. After she is dumped by her boss/boyfriend Max ( Pitch Perfect’s Utkarsh Ambedkar) she has a manic meet up with an assumed Uber driver named Nick ( Stranger Things’ Dacre Montgomery). Their chance meeting leads to a partnership by opening up her Broken Hearts Gallery. Of course, it is in Nick’s boutique hotel he is struggling to open.

For all the classic romantic-comedy tropes (cute meetup, manic woman, calm man, hilarious besties, the third act rom-com playbook), The Broken Hearts Gallery is a quirky and often absurdly hilarious look at the love lives of New York City millennials. Yes, sure, some decisions defy logic like taking up valuable hotel space that you can’t make money off of. Another would be the fact that Viswanathan Lucy’s hot mess, cute meet up (think Anna Farris in any rom-com meets Shanna from Hoarders ) doesn’t lead to a disaster, you know, by drunkenly climbing into a car that wasn’t an Uber wouldn’t lead to her murder, or Nick not calling the cops to avoid a false kidnapping charge. You forget all that because of the chemistry Montgomery and Viswanathan have. It’s absurd, sweet, and consistently entertaining.

However, the supporting characters with the leads are just as entertaining. In particular, Molly Gordon ( Good Boys ) steals the show as the sharply droll and one of Lucy’s besties, Amanda. Then you have Arturo Castro ( Narcos ) as Nick’s stealthy wise-cracking best friend, Marcos. Each steals every scene they are in and are as memorable as they come. Coincidentally, both Montgomery and Castro look like a man-child.

Admittedly, the script does lose some steam by its final act, while Montgomery’s boyish, mighty-mouse routine is engaging (seriously, if they ever had a live-action film remake of the anthropomorphic superhero, he’s is the spitting image) does strain credibility. Overall, The Broken Hearts Gallery is carried by the charming Viswanathan and funny supporting turns by Gordan and Castro, make for a satisfying Rom-Com.

Let’s hope this film finds the audience it deserves.

Article by Marc Miller

Marc Miller (also known as M.N. Miller) joined Ready Steady Cut in April 2018 as a Film and TV Critic, publishing over 1,600 articles on the website. Since a young age, Marc dreamed of becoming a legitimate critic and having that famous “Rotten Tomato” approved status – in 2023, he achieved that status.

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• DVD & Streaming

The Broken Hearts Gallery

• Comedy , Romance

Content Caution

In Theaters

• September 11, 2020
• Geraldine Viswanathan as Lucy Gulliver; Dacre Montgomery as Nick; Utkarsh Ambudkar as Max Vora; Molly Gordon as Amanda; Phillipa Soo as Nadine; Bernadette Peters as Eva Woolf

Home Release Date

• November 10, 2020
• Natalie Krinsky

Distributor

• TriStar Pictures

Movie Review

Lucy Gulliver is what you might call a hoarder of relationship memorabilia. She can’t help but save all sorts of mementos as emotional milestones from her past relationships: the retainer that one early boyfriend always removed when they made out, a rubber duck that he won at the fair, a condom wrapper from … well, you get the idea. And at 26, Lucy has had a lot of relationships—something that her packed bedroom shelves can attest to.

But everything eventually goes sideways in her love affairs—just like with Max, her most recent fling. And when it does, she finds another box or bag for her new stock of love tokens, then goes out and drinks herself into a stupor in preparation for the next relational leap and inevitable nosedive.

After Max, however, a drunken Lucy ends up in some stranger’s car that she mistakes for her Uber ride. And for some reason, the nice guy behind the wheel, Nick, takes pity on her and gives her a lift home anyway. It’s awkward, but the two strike up what you might call a reluctant friendship.

Next thing you know, Lucy’s helping Nick with his boutique hotel project. She might as well, since her last drunken break-up got her fired from her job as an art gallery assistant. And when Nick shows Lucy an unfinished balcony area in the building that he’s been working on, she comes up with an idea.

What if, Lucy ventures, Nick were to let her create an art gallery on that detritus-filled balcony. In exchange, she’ll help him decorate the rest of the hotel with the avant-garde artistic skills she’s developed.

What kind of art gallery? Well, why not put together a collection of things that people keep from past relationships? After all, Lucy has some key contributions all ready to go. People could come, leave their unwanted treasures behind and leave their pain behind, too. It could serve as both art and therapy!

Nick doesn’t believe for a second that it could really happen. But after a crude beginning and a few social media posts, Lucy’s brainstorm actually takes shape. People leave their relationship keepsakes and offer a donation or two as well. Hey, one man’s junk is another person’s artistic expression.

And just like that, The Broken Hearts Gallery starts showing signs of life.

Positive Elements

Lucy’s roommates, Nadine and Amanda, are both very supportive during Lucy’s heartbreaks and disappointments. They attempt to protect her at times and comfort her in others. And Nick turns out to be the one earnest guy who’s ever been a part of Lucy’s life.

Spiritual Elements

One of Lucy’s roommates, Amanda, talks about taking an ex’s yarmulke. And she recounts a sexual experience at a bat mitzvah. The camera catches sight of a large neon cross in a sign shop. An older woman states that her body is as “tight as a Mormon teenager.” Someone talks about belief in reincarnation.

Sexual Content

We see one couple make out passionately and then wake up the next day in bed together (both covered). Several characters talk about their same-sex lovers. Nadine, one of Lucy’s roommates, spends a protracted amount of time making out with another woman in a coffee shop. She also kisses Lucy while showing her how to properly break up with someone. Lucy and Nick kiss on a few occasions.

Sexual and suggestive references are fairly frequent here, everything from noisy roommate sex to masturbation to someone’s long list of sexual partners to a variety of different activities associated to both hetero and same-sex intercourse. We also hear multiple explicit conversations about the male anatomy and sex toys.

A number of women at an art gallery event wear formfitting dresses. Lucy and others wear cleavage-revealing tops. Someone wears a T-shirt declaring, “Keep Your Politics Out of My Uterus.”

Violent Content

While drunk, Lucy trips and falls hard. Nick gets hit in the face by someone who falsely suspects he’s been violent with another woman.

Crude or Profane Language

One f-word—as well as two stand-ins in the form of “frickin” and “f-ing”—are joined by some 10 s-words. There are also a handful of uses each of “d–n,” “a–,” “b–ch” and “h—.”  The word “crap” makes an appearance four times, too.

God’s and Jesus’ names are both misused a total of 18 times (God being combined with “d–n” once). Someone displays a crude hand gesture.

Drug and Alcohol Content

People drink whiskey and wine repeatedly. Lucy and Nick regularly toss back a whiskey or other hard liquor. Celebrants at a friend’s birthday party all get visibly drunk, slurring their speech and staggering around.

A surprised individual wonders if she’s been given acid. A woman talks of a boyfriend who was always high on weed.

Other Negative Elements

Someone glumly suggests that in all relationships “everyone either leaves, disappoints or dies.” Nick references a family member who was a secret bookie. Lucy feels betrayed at one point because Nick hasn’t revealed an important piece of information to her.

Writer/director Natalie Krinsky tries really hard to make this formulaic break-up film into something fresh, something that a Gen Y or Gen Z crowd might embrace. She packs the film with all the quick-talking quips and hip-nerd liberal zingers that she can possibly cram into108 minutes of screen time. And movie leads Geraldine Viswanathan and Dacre Montgomery keep their precocious New York rom-com antics tuned to brisk .

In spite of all that, though, this pic’s cute gallery-for-exes idea comes off a bit too scripted and forced. There’s nothing organically warm and fuzzy to snuggled up to here.

“Pain, my dear, is inevitable,” one character says late in the film. “It’s what you do with it that matters.” And that’s a true statement with cathartic possibilities at its core. But given how often the characters here jump in and out of bed with anyone who wanders by, it’s no wonder they’re miserable. Add in heavy boozing, crude gags and rough-edged dialogue and you’ve got a film that makes romance seem like a … tedious chore.

This lighthearted romcom, executive produced by actress and singer Selena Gomez, may be intended as a comic tonic for heartbreak. But it’ll likely leave discerning families with an unpleasant case of heart burn .

After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.

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Movie Review – The Broken Hearts Gallery (2020)

September 9, 2020 by Robert Kojder

The Broken Hearts Gallery , 2020.

Written and Directed by Natalie Krinsky. Starring Geraldine Viswanathan, Dacre Montgomery, Utkarsh Ambudkar, Nikki Duval, Suki Waterhouse, Molly Gordon, Phillipa Soo, Sheila McCarthy, Nathan Dales, Bernadette Peters, Ego Nwodim, Megan Ferguson, Tattiawna Jones, and Arturo Castro.

After a break up, a young woman decides to start a gallery where people can leave trinkets from past relationships.

The concept of The Broken Hearts Gallery is certainly an intriguing one, mostly because it’s at odds with common advice when it comes to breakups. Generally, people are encouraged to get rid of things that remind them of past significant others (physical objects and social media related memories), whereas the lead to writer/director Natalie Krinsky’s (her first time ever behind the camera and first time writing a film, with her only previous credits being for television) is Lucy (a hyperactive, facially expressive Geraldine Viswanathan that’s lively enough to carry the movie past its amateurish shortcomings and cliché script), an art gallery worker who hoards an abundance of mementos from all of her past relationships.

Lucy is feeling optimistic about her current relationship with Max (Utkarsh Ambudkar), unable to realize that he sees her as more of a secret weapon for furthering his own career within the art world, despite literally telling her at one point “you’re my secret weapon.” Things go south at a gallery showing when Max is spotted with his former girlfriend who has returned to New York, and they only get worse as Lucy derails the event with her planned speech that quickly veers into drunkenly talking about herself and then injuring herself. In a cleverly amusing sequence, she mistakes a random car for her Lyft and befriends Nick (Dacre Montgomery) who gives in and drives her home after repeated attempts at explaining he’s not a service driver, naturally listening to her vent about her disastrous night and struggles with heartbreak on the way home.

While it’s immediately clear that Nick is going to become the next love interest, Lucy also lives with a pair of supportive friends that are instantly there for her while providing their own comedy to the proceedings, whether it comes from Nadine (Phillipa Soo)’s boasting about being a stay-at-home model and her numerous past lesbian relationships, or Amanda (Molly Gordon) who is the more attentive of the two and has her own boyfriend Jeff, the silent dude trope. One of many conveniences allows Lucy to encounter Nick once again (and continue running into Max as well) where she learns about his ongoing renovations of a YMCA to be transformed into a hotel that resembles his greatest memories of New York. It’s been a long bumpy process and not entirely financially backed, so Lucy comes up with the idea to leave one of her mementos from the relationship with Max inside the hotel and use social media to promote the titular place as somewhere people can turn their past dating life into an art gallery.

Expectedly, the best aspect of The Broken Hearts Gallery comes not just from the various trinkets we get glimpses of, but the stories that accompany them whether they are from key characters or unknowns. At times, there are documentary-like interviews spliced into the movie for all of these people, reflecting on past relationships either seriously or jokingly. Not to take anything away from the fine ensemble here, but it’s the strangers/characters we know nothing about telling their stories that bring the film alive most, making good on the central premise of the movie.

Sometimes, The Broken Hearts Gallery comes a bit too close to abandoning this premise in favor of the standard love story at the center (which has a completely unnecessary wrench thrown into things during the final act), but it’s at least always there in the character’s motives. Thankfully, the movie never lets itself become a generic love triangle which is a welcome subversive element. In addition to being a lightweight and charming film about letting go, it’s also about the difficulty in complications of opening up one’s heart. There is a strong case of opposites attracting at play, and the performances contain more than enough chemistry painting these two as potential partners.

The Broken Hearts Galler y may not do anything revolutionary with its study of breakups, but the idea has a number of moving moments alongside vibrant leads (Geraldine Viswanathan is quickly becoming one of the most radiant on-the-rise talents out there) that overcome Natalie Krinsky’s occasional inability to avoid predictability and formulaic storytelling.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★

Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check  here  for new reviews, friend me on Facebook, follow my  Twitter  or  Letterboxd , check out my personal non-Flickering Myth affiliated  Patreon , or email me at [email protected]

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A winning Geraldine Viswanathan can't mend The Broken Hearts Gallery : Review

Mary is EW.com's assistant features editor. She writes about movies, books, fashion, and the Real Housewives.

The return of the romantic comedy continues its steady march with Natalie Krinsky's The Broken Hearts Gallery (now playing in select theaters), which makes use, as they all do, of a few tropes, which makes it easy, as it always is, to locate it among its peers: The Selena Gomez -produced rom-com falls somewhere among Someone Great , How to Be Single , and even HBO's Girls (the influence of which has persisted even as Lena Dunham 's star has waned).

The Broken Hearts Gallery does not benefit from comparisons to these other visions of urban millennial messiness (especially Girls , though the diverse film does improve on that series' extreme whiteness), always going for "relatable" over actual authenticity. It's almost saved by the great appeal of star Geraldine Viswanathan , who plays Lucy, a 26-year-old New York gallery girl with a habit of collecting souvenirs from her ex-boyfriends. Despondent after getting dumped by her latest beau ( Utkarsh Ambudkar ), she meets cute with aspiring hotelier Nick ( Stranger Things ' Dacre Montgomery ) and is inspired to create a "broken hearts gallery" displaying relics of failed relationships in his unfinished boutique hotel.

Krinsky's script would have benefited from a few more passes; the movie wants to be more than a generic rom-com by exploring the painful shadow side to romance, but it's too messy to offer any meaningful observations (not to mention its runtime needs to lose at least 10 minutes, and its plot at least two meandering detours). The obvious lesson in Lucy's gallery ought to be that heartbreak helps make us who we are; while this is explicitly stated at one point (by Bernadette Peters , as a sort of art-world fairy godmother), it hits as a tacked-on, hollow platitude, having little to do with Lucy's hazy emotional journey.

Viswanathan can definitely carry a movie — look to last year's Hala — and she has charm and charisma to spare (though they were put to better use in 2018's Blockers ). The actress brings a bright, engaging energy to The Broken Hearts Gallery , but even she can't redeem the incoherently written Lucy, who is best described as a disorienting blend of mismatched clichés about twentysomething women.

She is most vivid, though, when she appears alongside her BFFs, played by Molly Gordon ( Booksmart ) and Phillipa Soo ( Hamilton ), and the appealing trio are the film's high point. As the cynical Nick, Montgomery has an easy chemistry with Viswanathan (though the development of their sometimes-baffling dynamic could also use some tightening) and Arturo Castro is funny, too, as his pal Marcos.

Too much feels off. The setting barely resembles New York. The key-to-everything backstories are terribly contrived, the setup of Lucy's failed romance inadequate to buy into what follows. The twin evolutions of Nick and Lucy's passion projects ought to be invigorating, but it's endlessly distracting how the film's definitions of "hotel" and "art gallery" seem to have nothing to do with, you know, our real-world conceptions of those things. Not that stark realism is a requirement for bright and bubbly romantic comedies! But if a film is going to make plot devices out of the difficulty of obtaining bank loans and the accomplishment of attracting tens of thousands of Instagram followers, then an audience's understanding of what merits those things should be relevant.

It doesn't help that Lucy's big idea isn't a novel one , and the notion that her art-world superiors (or just about any city-dwelling millennials) would be deeply impressed by her vision just adds to the general confusion. It feels like a missed opportunity, too, that the film mines no color from the art scene, or that this ostensible comedy makes no attempt to send up that famously rather ridiculous industry. Its bland portrayal doesn't give the movie any texture, but I suppose the complete lack of specificity does allow for maximum relatability — and that's the point, isn't it?

I really wish it weren't. If the movie had just a little bit of truth, it could speak to people without "relatable" pandering about how adulting is hard and men are jerks ! It's easy to parade around an ostentatiously broken heart, but that only means anything if it comes with baring a little bit of soul. C-

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‘The Broken Hearts Gallery’ Film Review: Rom-Com Is a Pleasant Diversion in a Tough Situation

What if a date movie came out at a time when dating was a risky thing to do? What if a romantic comedy geared for girls-night-out excursions was released in a climate in which everybody was supposed to stay in? What if a rom-com about hanging out, hooking up and having fun in crowded places with your friends was released during a pandemic when none of those things are exactly encouraged?

Those are not hypothetical questions, and the makers of “The Broken Hearts Gallery” are about to learn the answers. So is Sony, which knew what it was getting in for: It acquired the movie in June and scheduled it to be one of the first major-studio films to make it back into theaters after the COVID-19 shutdowns, but the worsening pandemic pushed the original July 10 release date back for two months, to Sept. 11.

So now the agreeably frothy and occasionally touching summer movie is coming out at the tail end of a very strange and strained summer, an awkward time and situation for a film that celebrates community and connection. But maybe that makes it a tonic for these times – and maybe the fact that “The Broken Hearts Gallery” is also about letting go and accepting loss gives it an additional resonance, though it’s hard to think of it as much more than a pleasant diversion in a time that could use one.

Also Read: Dacre Montgomery and Geraldine Viswanathan Meet-Cute in 'The Broken Hearts Gallery' Trailer (Video)

In the film from first-time writer-director Natalie Krinsky, Geraldine Viswanathan (“Blockers,” “Bad Education”) plays Lucy, an inveterate collector who can’t let go of any souvenirs of previous relationships, from a rubber ducky won at a carnival to her ex-boyfriend’s dental retainer. She is, essentially, a hoarder, both physically and emotionally, and something of a mess who can’t stop talking and can’t stop justifying her behavior to herself and to everybody around her.

Lucy lives in one of those suspiciously large New York City apartments with Amanda and Nadine (Molly Gordon and Phillipa Soo); it’s all so rom-commy and sit-commy that on at least one occasion, a visitor seems to materialize inside the apartment as if they just leave the door unlocked.

So relentlessly annoying that many viewers will really have to work at liking her, Lucy begins the movie besotted with her “grown-up” boyfriend, Max (Utkarsh Ambudkar), and thrilled with her job at a tony art gallery. Before heading off to a particularly important opening-night soiree at the gallery, she announces to her friends, “It’ll be the greatest night of my life!” Amanda quickly retorts, “That’s what people say in horror movies before they get herpes and die” – and while that’s not exactly correct since herpes is not exactly a horror-movie staple, it is true that people in romantic comedies who say they’re deliriously happy in the first 10 minutes are destined to not be happy very quickly.

So in short order, Lucy loses her boyfriend and her job and finds herself in abject (but very chatty) misery. But in the midst of her grief she has a meet-cute with Nick (“Stranger Things” star Dacre Montgomery), when she mistakes his car for an Uber and refuses to listen to his explanation until he gives her a ride home. It takes a second meet-cute (he pulls her out of a restaurant when she’s about to create a scene with her ex) before they start to connect after he delivers his diagnosis: “You’re a pessimist. You collect these things in anticipation that your relationships are going to end.”

Also Read: 'Mulan' Film Review: Epic Disney Remake Ditches the Songs and the Dragon but Has Heart

Nick, it turns out, is renovating an old hotel that he’s named the Chloe and that he wants to turn into the coolest and artiest boutique hotel in town. Lucy soon commandeers a section of the hotel for her own inspiration: the Broken Heart Gallery, where people can dispose of objects from past relationships and Lucy can turn those memories into art.

(The movie’s title is Broken Hearts , plural, but the gallery is Broken Heart, singular. Go figure.)

And from this platonic relationship between two people who kind of get on each other’s nerves but are thrown together, it’s not hard to figure out the course of events. But hey, people don’t go to rom-coms for the surprises; they go for the laughs (occasional), the chemistry (middling) and the emotional and entertainment value found in the trip to an essentially preordained conclusion.

On that level, “The Broken Hearts Gallery” is relatively satisfying. The film has some awkward edits and some jumps that suggest things are missing, but as a female-centric romance, it is breezy enough to go down easily. And the focus on coming to terms with endings can be genuinely touching at times, as it is when we finally learn why Lucy is such a collector.

It’s also a rom-com that is fully aware it’s a rom-com: Nick doesn’t just make a grand gesture, he announces it by saying, “It’s a grand gesture!”

Grand is not otherwise a word you’d associate with “The Broken Hearts Gallery,” a pleasant summer movie put in the position of having to be more than that. But with its touch of melancholy and its nostalgia for crowded bars and new loves, it could lighten the mood a bit for whatever people are ready to head back into theaters.

Read original story ‘The Broken Hearts Gallery’ Film Review: Rom-Com Is a Pleasant Diversion in a Tough Situation At TheWrap

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The Broken Hearts Gallery Review

11 Sep 2020

The Broken Hearts Gallery

A kind of glossy romcom filtered through Lena Dunham’s Girls , Natalie Krinsky’s debut feature, The Broken Hearts Gallery , announces a sharp, smart, fun voice to the genre, a film knowing enough to have characters re-enact scenes from The Notebook yet open-hearted enough to bring the feels. It’s built around an unlikely but novel plot idea — an installation of mementoes for the lovelorn — that allows for a touching take on how we process break-ups and moving on. But perhaps most importantly, it also anoints Geraldine Viswanathan as a star in waiting.

Viswanathan is Lucy, a 26-year-old art gallery assistant so consumed by her romantic relationships that she hoards mementoes from every one; a plastic piggy bank, a Monopoly thimble, old shoe laces. After the latest split — her first Grown-Up Boyfriend (Utkarsh Ambudkar), with a fridge and coffee-table books — she meets reserved Nick ( Stranger Things ’ Dacre Montgomery, charming) who is transforming an old YMCA into a boutique shabby-chic hotel. To help herself heal, Lucy comes up with the idea of a shrine to love lost, where the broken-hearted can leave the mementoes of beloved exes, to be housed in Nick’s hotel. Of course, the exhibition becomes a huge success — cue the obligatory flurry of social media posts, a New York magazine cover — but Lucy’s happiness is challenged when the Grown-Up Boyfriend returns.

Geraldine Viswanathan gives a performance that pops, full of life, wit and energy.

Let’s be straight: The Broken Hearts Gallery doesn’t reinvent the romcom; it just does it very well. For those ticking off the tropes, there is a meet cute after a devastating break-up (a distraught Lucy gets into Nick’s car mistaking it for a Lyft taxi); a pair of supportive besties ( Hamilton breakout Phillipa Soo’s Nadine as a gay heartbreaker and Molly Gordon’s Amanda as murder-obsessive Amanda are terrific fun — she also has the pre-requisite never-says-a-word-until-it’s-funny boyfriend); montages galore, comedy slapstick (Lucy gives a drunken acceptance speech to a posh crowd), secrets that look to derail the happy couple, a last-minute cross-town dash, and the final grand gesture that at least has the nerve to announce itself as a “grand gesture”.

But Krinsky elevates the material in three distinct areas. Firstly, she creates a tone that allows the film to be cynical and knowing without ever the polluting the air of romance. Secondly, the idea of a broken hearts gallery is a resonant one, creating a mood of poignancy and nostalgia, given depth when we find out the real reason Lucy started hoarding. But Krinsky’s greatest achievement here is in her casting. A scene-stealer from Blockers and Bad Education , Geraldine Viswanathan gives a performance that pops, full of life, wit and energy, but which still hits notes of longing and melancholy that give the character emotional heft. Her chemistry with Montgomery is tangible: there is something delightfully old-fashioned about the way they spar with each other, a courtship built on flirting and genuine will-they-won’t they tension. When was the last time a romcom did that?

What's At The Movies

‘The Broken Hearts Gallery’ Movie Review

The Broken Hearts Gallery  is the type of film that inspired many to develop a love for going to movies. There’s nothing overly complicated about the narrative, and the ending is somewhat predictable, but that doesn’t take away from writer/director Natalie Krinsky’s well constructed and heartfelt tale of an emotional hoarder named Lucy (Geraldine Viswanathan). If we were in a different place as a society and COVID was a distant memory, Krinsky’s film has all the potential of being a surprise breakout for Sony. Our hope now is that we get the word out and pack what theaters are open, so more projects like this will see the light of day. It seems romantic comedies have veered away from being grounded in reality. Most of them either involve some supernatural element to it, are a little too far-fetched, or they pivot to a romantic story with tragic undertones.  The Broken Hearts Gallery  is a welcomed return to romantic stories anchored in reality. These characters don’t look like they were on the cover of Vogue. They look like us. Everyone has someone like Lucy in their life. Krinsky’s film thrives because of this authenticity and connects with audiences because of how real those moments feel. It’s one of the best Romantic Comedies to come around in years.

The film centers around Lucy (Viswanathan), a 20-something who works in an art gallery in New York and keeps mementos from every guy she’s ever been dumped by. Amanda (Molly Gordon) and Nadine (Phillipa Soo) are her best friends and roommates who have seen her amass this collection while comforting her each time this happens. After her latest breakup, she is inspired to open up a gallery called  The Broken Hearts Gallery , it’s a space for people to share items left by their exes. Through the process of opening this space, she meets Nick (Dacre Montgomery), who himself is trying to open his hotel, and they immediately have a connection with one another.

The chemistry between Viswanathan and Montgomery is off the charts. Geraldine also gives Lucy just enough emotional vulnerability, on-screen that it’s hard not to fall in love with her character. Seeing what she did with Lucy on screen brought back memories of Meg Ryan in ‘You’ve Got Mail.’ There were points in the movie where it seemed that Molly Gordon and Phillipa Soo were going to steal the show as they were hysterical, but they provided the perfect balance to Geraldine’s character.

The Broken Hearts Gallery  will make you believe in second chances and embrace the power of moving on from the pain of lost love. Indeed, one of the top 20 films I’ve seen so far in 2020 and well worth seeing in theaters or down the road when it’s on VOD.