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Zero time Tony Award winner • Production Assistant • Serial rewatcher
Whenever I was a little girl and I saw a new movie that captivated me, I always left the theater with an extra pep in my step. Yesterday, that very same feeling crept up after watching The Broken Hearts Gallery. Let me briefly paint a picture for you. I arrive at my local Cinemark wearing a navy/white midi dress, gold jewelry, white sneakers, and my hair is cut in a short bob. As the movie progresses, I see the main character wearing a navy/white midi dress, gold jewelry, white sneakers, and sporting a short bob haircut. I promise I didn’t plan that, however, I loved every minute of it!
Natalie Krinsky’s romantic comedy, The Broken Hearts Gallery, is a movie I have been anticipating for a long time. It has been on my radar ever since Molly Gordon, Phillipa Soo, and Geraldine Viswanathan all shared photos on their Instagram pages last year.
Lucy (Viswanathan), an emotional hoarder, gets dumped by her latest boyfriend (Utkarsh Ambudkar) and is fired from her job both on the same night. While trying to get home she accidentally gets in the back of a Prius she believes is her Uber. Following a meet-cute with the owner of the car, Nick (Dacre Montgomery), he agrees to drive her home. As their friendship blossoms, she convinces him to let her open up a broken heart gallery in his hotel, a place where broken-hearted people could come and leave old souvenirs from past relationships as a way of letting go.
Lucy lives with her two best friends — Amanda (Gordon) and Nadine (Soo) — and Amanda’s boyfriend Jeff (Nathan Dales). Amanda is frank, sometimes grumpy, and doesn’t let her boyfriend get a word in edgewise. Nadine is a free-spirited lesbian who has a thing for Russian models. The two of them are Lucy’s protectors and truly bring out the best in her character. Their on-screen friendship was so natural. The chemistry these actors have made me feel like I was the fourth girl in their friend group.
I am no stranger to romantic comedies. I’ve seen my fair share of good ones and bad ones. I’m happy to report that this is one of the good ones! This movie doesn’t try too hard to be relatable. Like the aforementioned chemistry, it’s very natural and I feel that each viewer can see a bit of themselves in different aspects of the characters. I found myself becoming very animated while I watched the film. Every emotion that the characters felt, I have gone through. Sure, it’s full of cliche moments — a meet-cute, a declaration of love, an ex-boyfriend reappearing, etc. That doesn’t mean it isn’t littered with a few fresh takes and surprising quips along the way, but I’ll let you figure those out for yourself.
My biggest takeaway from the film is the important message it offers about relationships in this day and age — romantic and platonic. There is a big emphasis on healthy relationships and how communication and trust are at the forefront. It doesn’t shy away from any particular topic that some people consider taboo. Female empowerment is also a big theme and how that comes from not only your closest support group but also yourself.
Whether you like romantic comedies or not, this is a movie that people in their 20s should see. We all grieve relationships in different ways, and we deserve to feel accepted for the methods that we choose. Carrie Fisher once said, “Take your broken heart and make it into art.” Lucy takes the broken hearts of people all over New York and transforms them into a beautiful exhibit.
Zero time Tony Award winner • Production Assistant • Serial rewatcher
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