Other Titles • The Broken Hearts Club: A Romantic Comedy • 8x10's (1999) • The Broken Hearts Club (2000) • The Broken Hearts League (2000)
Synopses for The Broken Hearts Club: A Romantic Comedy (2000)
1.
After viewing the gay ensemble film The Broken Hearts Club--the subtitle of which helpfully points out that it's "a romantic comedy"--you might feel as if you've been offered a discussion conundrum not unlike the kind that Mike Myers's Linda "Coffee Talk" Richman would put forward: "The Broken Hearts Club is neither romantic nor comedic. Discuss." What it is, rather, is a gay male version of Steel Magnolias, right down to the funeral scene and hospital visit. While decidedly less melodramatic than that Southern chick flick, it still aspires to a kind of big-group love-in feeling that's only vaguely comic. And romance? Well, there's some somewhere, when the characters aren't carping about how the only thing they're good at is being gay. They all wrestle with their Big Issues--should Patrick (Ben Weber) donate sperm so his sister can have a baby with her lesbian lover? Will cynical Dennis (Timothy Olyphant) finally admit he loves just-out-of-the-closet Kevin (Andrew Keegan)? How will love-'em-and-leave-'em Cole (Dean Cain) feel when he's rejected by the closeted movie star?--but to little effect, despite some snappy one-liners and occasional keen observances of gay culture. Writer-director Greg Berlanti's screenplay still feels about two or three drafts away from completion, and when faced with stalling action, he opts for a montage set to one of many Carpenters' songs (covers, not the actual hits themselves). Kudos go to the acidic Weber for infusing what could have been a whiny character with a dry, intelligent wit, and the surprisingly charming Cain, who makes Cole someone you can't really hate too much despite all his faults--it would be like hating a puppy. If only all the characters were half as appealing. --Mark Englehart
(15 votes)
2.
Focusing in on a close group of single gay pals living in Hollywood, California, THE BROKEN HEART'S CLUB is a poignant film about the ways that these friends both support each other and annoy each other, guiding each other through trials and tribulations with relationships, careers, getting older, and life in general. The film was written and directed by Greg Berlanti who previously wrote episodes of the popular television show DAWSON'S CREEK. THE BROKEN HEART'S CLUB is a timeless comedy that really tells it like it is.
(15 votes)
3.
The Broken Hearts Club is a story about a group of men in Hollywood, their lovers and friends and the often hilarious, occasionally poignant space in between -- that is if they can get any space at all.
(15 votes)
4.
Chirpily likeable rather than profound, The Broken Hearts Club covers a few months in the lives of a group of young gay men on the West Hollywood scene and their pursuit of love and happiness. They admire the long-term domestic bliss of Jack (John Mahoney) in whose restaurant some of them work, but have no real sense of how to get there, of how to grow out of shallow dating relationships and the perpetual chase of the next cute body. Patrick Ben Weber is average-looking in a world of beautiful men like Cole (Dean Cain) and has developed a nasty tongue to go with the insecurity; Howie (Matt McGrath) over-intellectualises his relationships and their breakup; Dennis (Timothy Olyphant) is not even sure he should be hanging out with these people when he should be working on his photography. A little too much of this charming film is devoted to winding these characters up and letting them bitch at each other in a variety of locations and emotional messes, and yet there is real wit here and some moments of fine perceptiveness about being young and in a hurry to find what you need. --Roz Kaveney
(15 votes)
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