Mark Reviews Movies: THE BROKEN HEARTS GALLERY

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Review by Mark Dujsik | September 10, 2020

"Heartbreak is inevitable," a character says near the end of The Broken Hearts Gallery. "It's what you do with that matters." This is simple stuff as a theme, yes, but making her feature debut, writer/director Natalie Krinsky has made an admirably simple film. It's a comedy, in which the characters are funny and charming, quirky but possessing some quality beneath the peculiarities, and clever in a thoughtful-about-their-lives-and-matters-of-the-heart kind of way. We like them, and that's really enough for material such as this.

There is a gimmick, having to do with the creation and running of the eponymous gallery, but it mostly runs alongside the real story. That story is about a young woman, unlucky in and constantly broken-up about love, as she deals with the pains of the past and her own tendency to cling to that pain.

There's a romance, too, of course, because no light-hearted story about a broken heart is going to end with our protagonist alone and with no prospects for romantic happiness. That part works quite well. The two inevitable lovers get to know each other on a level that's deeper than we might expect. These two actually talk, as they form a mutually beneficial partnership involving the makeshift gallery. They get to know each other well enough, indeed, that their shared story could have ended with the pair becoming great friends and business partners, instead of lovers.

We'd accept even that development as a sign that both of them have made progress in seeing the possibilities of the present over the troubles of the past. When the characters' actual connection—of shared dreams and conflicting but complementary personalities—is more important than the question of whether or not they'll get together, that's how one knows a story cares more about its characters than the requirements of genre expectations.

Our protagonist is 26-year-old Lucy (a funny and engaging Geraldine Viswanathan), who has an odd obsession with collecting mementos from stages and moments of her life. Many of these have to do with past romances, but it doesn't stop there. At lunch with her friends/roommates, skeptical law student Amanda (Molly Gordon) and female model-chasing Nadine (Phillipa Soo), Lucy nabs a salt shaker as she leaves. It was a good meal, featuring worthwhile conversation with best friends, and it needs to memorialized—as another souvenir to join the collection that's scattered around her bedroom, kept in boxes, and sealed in plastic bags hanging from the walls.

The story of the gallery begins after Lucy's most recent break-up. It arrives with the end of her relationship with the older Max (Utkarsh Ambudkar), who works at an art gallery where Lucy has a stepping-stone job for her dream of running a gallery of her own. After a drunken outburst, leading to her getting dumped and fired in the same night, we get a uniquely modern and rather clever meet-cute. Having called for a lift on a ride-share app, she accidentally gets into the wrong car. It's being driven by Nick (Dacre Montgomery), who drives Lucy home anyway and listens to her sad story.

Eventually, the two team up for a project. Nick, who stops Lucy from making another scene at a restaurant where he happens to be, is refurbishing a building into a boutique hotel. That's where Lucy, determined to clear out most of her mementos (but finding she can't even give away some of them), devises the plan for a new art installation. People can donate their own souvenirs of heartbreak, and they'll be displayed as signposts of people letting go, moving on, and coming to terms with grief.

That's the central gimmick, but Krinsky is smart to keep it in the background (There are interludes of video testimonials from people who have donated items, and while most of them are jokey, the intent of the idea remains). This story is mostly about Lucy and Nick, teaming up and debating the impulse to keep tangible memories of old pain. Lucy is certain that Nick is cold and cynical, unwilling to open up about his feelings. He is—or at least he puts on a good show of appearing that way. Montgomery is quite good here in what could be a pretty thankless role. He's distant without coming across as detached, sarcastic without being mean, and, like so much of the cast, effortlessly charming.

Nick is convinced that his new friend is just a pessimist ("That's the worst thing anyone has ever said about me," she replies), collecting souvenirs because she has convinced herself that every relationship is just going to be a painful memory one day. Lucy does have a reason for her collection, and the scene in which we finally learn it and meet the inspiration for her obsession is fairly noteworthy for how much work it does. It provides the emotional backbone for Lucy's way of thinking, yes, but it also adds a deeper level to the connection between her and Nick, who additionally shows there's more beneath his cool, withdrawn exterior.

Undoubtedly, the film does eventually fall into a few traps of expectations. Lucy and Max reunite, leaving Nick to stew in his unspoken feelings for her, and there's yet another obstacle to what's developing between our leads in the person of a mysterious woman (played by Suki Waterhouse) from Nick's own, undisclosed past.

Krinsky doesn't linger on these momentary complications, because these characters have grown, as individuals and together, over the course of this story. Again, that's nothing revolutionary, but in the case of The Broken Hearts Gallery, it's more than enough.

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