Written and directed by Natalie Krinsky, The Broken Hearts Gallery tells the story of perpetual helpless-romantic Lucy (Geraldine Viswanathan). Artist Lucy has been consistently unlucky in love, but still hopes to eventually find that magic someone. A hoarder at heart, her serial dating habit has seen her amass a mighty amount of mementos and souvenirs of her love-life. After her latest break-up sends her on yet another spiral, her roommates insist that she clear her life of all the clutter. Whilst trying to part with her collection, she crosses paths with burgeoning restaurant owner, Nick ( Dacre Montgomery), who offers her the space above his restaurant to create a gallery for all her sentimentality. Word quickly spreads and soon people are travelling far and wide to leave their own trinkets at the Broken Hearts Gallery, but can Lucy keep things together long enough to make it a true success?
Led by an engaging and amusing performance by Geraldine Viswanathan, The Broken Hearts Gallery is the perfect easy-watch film to see in the new year with. The film follows the familiar modern-day romantic comedy formula, and despite having a couple of surprises along the way, is mostly predictable. This predictability allows the viewer to settle down and get comfortable with the film without any threat of sudden swerves into unexplored territory. For those that really love their romantic comedies however, this over-reliance on formula might make proceedings a tad too repetitive, but it works great for those with a more casual interest.
The element that prevents The Broken Hearts Gallery being anything other than just fine, is an identity crisis. Released in cinemas as a 12A, and therefore as a 12 on home entertainment platforms, the film struggles to properly work out exactly who its target audience is. With conversations around vibrators, masturbation, casual sex, and the finer workings of adult relationships, the story is clearly too grown-up for the younger spectrum of viewers. However, by being tied into a lower rating, it never pushes any of the more mature content into an arena befitting the older viewer. This leaves the film both too adult for the younger audience to connect to whilst also being too coy for those more grown-up to fully identify with. Were the filmmaker and distributors to have leaned further into a couple of elements and just pushed itself into a higher rating then we’d have a film with a better chance at resonating with those that watch it.
The Broken Hearts Gallery is a glossy and energetic entry into the modern-day romantic comedy. This may be Krinsky’s first feature film as director, but her time as a writer for TV show Gossip Girl shines brightly through. All the cast live in expensive apartments, wear super-stylish clothes and, on the surface at least, have carefree lives and limited problems. It makes for easy viewing and despite not quite managing to have much bite, makes for an entertaining movie morsel. The Broken Hearts Gallery falls nicely into that fast food section of film; it’s pleasant and enjoyable enough when consumed, but lacks that real depth that leaves you fully satisfied.
The Broken Hearts Gallery is available to Download and keep on 4th January, and is released on DVD from 18th January 2021.
The Broken Hearts Gallery
Summary
Although an easy film to watch as part of your new year’s viewing, The Broken Hearts Gallery ultimately struggles to fully pin down its target demographic. Identity crisis aside, Natalie Krinsky still provides a pleasingly entertaining slice of modern romantic comedy.
