"The Broken Hearts Gallery" an affable romantic comedy with likable leads and even funnier second bananas

The Broken Hearts Gallery (2020)

Long live the deathless genre that is the Romantic Comedy. Writer-director Natalie Krinsky makes her feature debut with “The Broken Hearts Gallery,” an affable romantic comedy duty-bound to the formula but getting its spark from two likable leads, brightly funny second bananas, and snappy, fast-talking banter. If there are few narrative surprises in store, this is still a lightly diverting respite from the real world. Some might even call it "cute." 

Geraldine Viswanathan (2020’s “Bad Education”) is enormously charismatic and adorably quirky as Lucy, a 26-year-old art gallerist-in-training in New York. She has collected tchotchkes from failed relationships like momentos for eight-ish years. After her latest heartbreak with her boyfriend (Utkarsh Ambudkar) followed by being fired by a gallery owner (Bernadette Peters), Lucy gets into a car she assumes is her Uber, but it happens to belong to Nick (Dacre Montgomery), an up-and-coming hotelier in Brooklyn. They keep running into each other, of course, and when Lucy gets the idea to display art installations out of others’ break-up memorabilia inside Nick’s hotel, they become partners. Don’t make any bets that they don’t get together in the end, though.

Predictable by nature but breezy, “The Broken Hearts Gallery” is mainly a showcase for Geraldine Viswanathan and her live-wire presence. She is able to sell a potentially annoying character as endearing. Creating a sweet chemistry with fellow Aussie Viswanathan, Dacre Montgomery (2017’s “Power Rangers”) is charming and sexy with a magnetic smile and dreamy eyes as Nick. Making the absolute most of zinger-spewing supporting roles, Molly Gordon (2019’s “Booksmart”) and Phillipa Soo (2020’s “Hamilton”) are very appealing as Lucy’s loyal (albeit bet-taking) best friends and roommates Amanda, a cynical law student, and Nadine, a lesbian who chases models. Also, Arturo Castro and Megan Ferguson, as Nick’s business partner Marcos and Marcos’ pregnant wife Randy, are quite funny. 

If you have seen a movie before, you know where “The Broken Hearts Gallery” is going—Nick’s ex-girlfriend Chloe (Suki Waterhouse) might as well be re-named “Contrived Obstacle” and one even knowingly makes a “grand gesture”—but those aren’t really deal-breakers. How Lucy’s gallery ultimately heals others is surprisingly poignant, as is a late scene where she takes Nick to meet a dementia-stricken woman, who happens to be her mother. “The Broken Hearts Gallery” could be sharper in places, but with more right than wrong with this old-fashioned formula, it ultimately wins one over.

Grade: B -

Sony Pictures Releasing released "The Broken Hearts Gallery" (108 min.) in theaters on September 11, 2020, and it will available for rent on VOD platforms November 17, 2020.