The Broken Hearts Gallery is a Heartwarming Romcom

Sommerleigh Pollonais – Senior Writer

I’m dedicating this review to my bestie Michelle, who adores the rom-com genre. We’re talking seen-every-Hallmark-movie, can-quote-Nicholas-Sparks-flicks-by-heart, cries-her-eyes-out-but-loves-every-minute-of-it rom-com fan. She doesn’t like horror movies but always marathons my favourites with me on my birthday, so this one’s for you chick!

The Broken Hearts Gallery hits every rom-com cliche in the book. Quirky female lead with artsy job, super good-looking love interest, weirdo best friends who always put her first, blah, blah, blah. It’s predictable as it gets…and DAMMIT I LOVED THIS MOVIE!

The film stars Geraldine Viswanathan and Stranger Things’ Dacre Montgomery (Stranger Things) as Lucy and Nick. After another bad breakup Lucy decides to start a gallery in Nick’s struggling hotel start-up where people can leave their trinkets from past relationships.

Broken Hearts is one of those rom-coms that prove without a doubt that great chemistry is the magic ingredient that makes these movies enjoyable. If you’ve seen Viswanathan’s performances in movies like Blockers and The Package, you’ll know she’s a natural comedic talent, and her vivacious energy and spot-on line deliveries make it near impossible not to laugh at her antics. She is well on her way to becoming a star in her own right. She and Montgomery feel like they genuinely enjoy each other’s company, and he does a great job as the serious but sweet foil to her ridiculous antics.

The rest of the cast also manage to take their by-the-numbers characters and turn them into loveable enough personas. Again, this made it easier to forgive the generic traits given to them (the weird one and the lesbian one) and to be fair to the movie, their lives are more fleshed out and their backstories are much better than you usually find in these types of films. That said, the story here is as predictable as it gets and I would’ve given it higher marks if they at least dug a little deeper when it came to Lucy’s reasons for keeping all those trinkets from past relationships. They do explain it, but it’s a one-and-done scene and the story would’ve benefited from giving this a bit more exploration.

Still, director and writer Natalie Krinsky elevates her script by making this trope heavy story feel fun and energetic. And even the most cynical viewers out there (c’est moi) who tend to make fun of this genre, will have to admit that the energy found here is infectious, making The Broken Hearts Gallery one of the better romantic comedies out there.

Sommer’s Score: 6.5 out of 10.

For a review of another romcom Love, Guaranteed you can click here. And for more lovingly written film reviews you can like and follow Redmangoreviews on Facebook here. 

 Sommerleigh of the House Pollonais. First of Her Name. Sushi Lover, Queen of Horror Movies, Comic Books and Binge Watching Netflix. Mother of two beautiful black cats named Vader and Kylo. I think eating Popcorn at the movies should be mandatory, PS4 makes the best games ever and I’ll be talking about movies until the zombie apocalypse comes.

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