The Broken Hearts Gallery (2020) Review

At the 2016 American Music Awards, Selena Gomez famously said "if you are broken, you do not have to stay broken", and funnily enough, she is now the executive producer of a film that would not exist if its main character listened to that advice. The Broken Hearts Gallery sees 26-year-old Lucy Gulliver (Blockers' Geraldine Viswanathan) collect - 'hoard' would be too derogatory -symbolic souvenirs from all of her previous relationships. It isn't until she meets fellow millennial Nick (Stranger Things' Dacre Montgomery) that she begins to master the art of letting go.

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After a funky opening credits sequence that features a Gomez-inspired Easter egg, the viewer is introduced to Lucy, a spunky and kind-hearted art gallery assistant who has recently uprooted her life to New York City. She is dating her egotistical, 10-years-elder boss Max (Utkarsh Ambudkar) and lives with her childhood besties: the obnoxiously self-centred Amanda (Molly Gordon) and helpless player Nadine (Hamilton's Phillipa Soo). Yet when Lucy witnesses Max straying at an important work event, her (understandable) reaction costs her her relationship and her job. It is from this point that Lucy deems herself as 'broken'.

While 20-somethings populate the majority of Hollywood's cast lists, Krinsky's film convinces us that they are still an underrepresented group. It is rare to see genuine and timely portrayals of young adulthood and even rarer to see 25-year-olds playing, well, 25-year-olds - earlier this year Viswanathan starred in HBO's Bad Education as a high-schooler! That being said Viswanathan is a fantastic find, with her excellent comedic timing, lively charisma and spunky line delivery. Likewise, Montgomery is comparable to a younger Zac Efron, Soo and Gordon embody the perfect best friends, and Nathan Dales as Jeff is a scene-stealer. The entire cast is a delight.

Lucy's struggles with her career, her relationships and her family add dimension, realism and relatability to the character. Moreover, Lucy's early experiences with Nick - their 'meet-cute' is anything but - offer apt commentary on womanhood and sexual harassment. Similarly Nick's financial difficulties, (lack of) communication skills and IBS (he opts for the "special milks") are all real problems that people actually face. In fact, I would go as far to say that The Broken Hearts Gallery could be kept as a memento to remember the diverse, multi-cultural and socially conscious individuals that inhabit our planet today. With numerous POC (person of colour) cast members, casual references to planned parenthood, Veganism, gender pronouns and Obama's presidency, and an authentic and dimensional LGBTQIA+ character in the form of Nadine, the film acts as a true reflection of society in 2020. After all, "art tells stories about people, places and moments in time" - a quote inspired by Lucy's mother.

It was Lucy's mother who introduced her to art, museums and galleries, but, devastatingly, it was her mother's memory loss and mental decline that caused her obsessive hold to the past. As Lucy vulnerably confides in a third act monologue, her mother was her first heartbreak and she keeps a Monopoly Thimble piece to remember the happier and simpler times. Krinsky does drop very subtle hints towards this development which could be missed by a passive viewing. Nonetheless, look out for the doubling and bittersweet significance of Elton John's "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" because it's a tearjerker.

There are many other meaningful (and bizarre) souvenirs on display at the gallery, from an unexplored map to a deceased stuffed dog to a used and tattooed leg cast. Yet my favourite was Dwayne's unopened champagne bottle, an item that represents a moving LGBTQIA+ love story. The symbolism behind donating these items to Lucy's gallery is wholesome and liberating, and it admirably captures the heart-healing act of letting go.

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Natalie Krinsky's sweet directing debut has a compelling premise, a charming cast and is shamelessly woke, yet loses its way during a messy third act. Even though the plot starts off as simple - girl heals her broken heart by displaying items that she amassed from past relationships in a pop-up gallery -, Krinsky's decision to write every character a subplot backfires in the final 20-minutes when all of this needs to be decluttered before the film's primary narrative can reach a conclusion. It was slightly overwhelming and detracted from an otherwise grounded and tender story.

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