The project has, however, led to her spending some quality time with donkeys on a desert ranch, which tickles her and also explains a recent Instagram post in which she’s posing with an Equus asinus, grinning mischievously, with the caption, “Check out my ass.” ![]() It’s early morning and Viswanathan is calling from the Palm Springs set of a secret project she can’t say much about. Artifacts pile up as strangers exorcise their romantic demons by donating to the collection, but nothing quite comes close to one item Viswanathan saw while researching the real museum in Croatia that inspired the story. Nursing a freshly broken heart, Lucy befriends the emotionally closed-off Nick (Dacre Montgomery of “ Stranger Things”), who’s renovating his dream boutique hotel, and builds a gallery in his lobby enshrining tokens of loves lost. (Helmed by writer-director Natalie Krinsky and inspired by the filmmaker’s own bad breakups, the film’s production design, by Zazu Myers, creates impeccable chaos out of Lucy’s world and its chic, sleek NYC setting.) “Doorknobs! I wonder where she gets all this stuff,” Viswanathan laughed. An outgoing aspiring curator who wears her heart on her sleeve, she clings so hard to souvenirs from failed relationships that her apartment is cluttered with mundane mementos of her exes: plane tickets, bags of string, even an assemblage of emotionally vivid doorknobs. It’s a sparkling and winning performance from an actor who has already done fine work but is still in the early stages of a greatly promising career.Lucy, the 20-something New York City gallery assistant Viswanathan plays in “The Broken Hearts Gallery,” needs something a little more concrete. “Broken Hearts Gallery” leans on so many of those Lucy Moments to carry the day, and Geraldine Viswanathan is always up to the task, whether Lucy is literally pratfalling at the worst possible moment, deflecting a situation with a well-timed quip or allowing herself to consider falling in love again, despite a room filled with painful reminders of relationships gone wrong. Dacre Montgomery as Nick gives a selfless and likable performance in a role that often requires him to simply hang in there and provide a well-timed reaction to another Lucy Moment. Molly Gordon is equally funny as Amanda, who has an extremely dark bent and a very strange and yet loving relationship with a boyfriend (Nathan Dales) who almost never speaks. Phillipa Soo (Broadway’s Eliza Schuyler in “Hamilton”) kills as Nadine, a self-described “stay at home model” who is an expert at ending relationships. The pop culture references are fast and funny, whether it’s Lucy telling a Harvard grad who never stops mentioning she went to Harvard, “Sorry I couldn’t go to an Ivy, I couldn’t pretend to row crew.” Or an art gallery owner played by the one and only Bernadette Peters telling Lucy, “The last time I saw you was like hearing Brad Pitt talk about architecture. The “Broken Heart Gallery” becomes a viral hit and merits a feature in New York magazine, and all of a sudden Lucy’s opportunistic ex-boyfriend Max resurfaces, and we’re like: Come on Lucy! Can’t you see this guy is no good, and your growing friendship with Nick could turn into something more?Įven as “Broken Hearts Gallery” travels down a well-worn path, it retains a certain freshness. The work-in-progress hotel becomes the site for Lucy’s impromptu art exhibit: a gallery of objects from fellow “emotional hoarders,” who can finally let go of their unhealthy attachments to items from relationships that have died. That’s weird and borderline creepy, but Lucy is so darn charming and likable and earnest, we just start rooting for her to break free, free from all those ties to her past. ![]() When Lucy enters the apartment and tells Nadine and Amanda she’s been dumped, they spring into choreographed comfort mode, draping a blanket around Lucy and giving her chips and dip and wine and a DVD copy of “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” But despite their best efforts, Lucy holes up in her bedroom for days, surrounded by an alarming number of souvenirs from past romances. Lucy climbs into the backseat of her Lyft ride and pours her heart out to the driver, who as it turns out isn’t a Lyft driver but a guy named Nick (Dacre Montgomery from “Stranger Things”), who just happened to pull up at the moment Lucy was expecting her ride. Cut to that night, with Lucy looking dazed and devastated after she was dumped by Max and fired from her job in rapid succession.
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