Review: 'The Broken Hearts Gallery' is a fizzy romantic comedy, and a showcase for the delightful Geraldine Viswanathan

The romantic comedy “The Broken Hearts Gallery” goes everywhere one expects a fizzy, bubbly New York romance is supposed to go — but it also goes to some interesting places, thanks to the female-focused writing and directing of Natalie Krinsky and the dazzling central performance by Geraldine Viswanathan.

You might remember Viswanathan from her breakout role in the raunch comedy “Blockers,” as the confident, sports-loving, sex-positive teen daughter of John Cena. She also wowed audiences at Sundance a year ago in “Hala,” as a Muslim teen confronting her desires. Here, in her first Hollywood leading role, it’s clear that Viswanathan is a name we’re all going to learn to spell it and pronounce, because we’ll be writing and talking about her a lot.

Viswanathan plays Lucy, a young gallery assistant in New York who thinks her biggest night is ahead of her: She’s overseeing a major opening for her boss, Eva (Bernadette Peters), a legend in the art world — and she’ll be doing it with her coworker and boyfriend, Max (Utkarsh Ambudkar). But when Lucy sees Max with an old flame (Tattiawna Jones), Lucy’s big night unravels into disaster and Eva fires her. 

All Lucy has to show for the evening is Max’s necktie. This turns out to be the latest souvenir Lucy has collected from all of her many breakups, which form a shrine that her gal-pal roommates — cynical law student Amanda (Molly Gordon, from “Booksmart”) and lesbian lothario Nadine (Phillipa Soo, from “Hamilton”) — think is creepy and debilitating.

One good thing emerges from that bad night: Lucy accidentally meets Nick (Dacre Montgomery, late of “Stranger Things”), a nice guy who listens to her drunken sob story after she breaks up with Max. The two become platonic friends, and Lucy takes an interest in the boutique hotel Nick is trying to open. In their conversations, Nick convinces Lucy to get rid of Max’s tie, by hanging it on a nail in Nick’s hotel. She writes a little note describing the breakup, and leaves it there.

The next morning, Nick calls Lucy with a surprise: Someone has left another breakup-related item, a map for a road trip that never happened, next to the tie. Lucy posts this on social media, and very soon people from all over New York are bringing in various items left over from busted romances — and Lucy has a viral hit, one that might produce a little money for Nick’s hotel.

From that premise, Krinsky — a TV scribe making her feature debut as writer and director — spins out some wry and witty commentary about love, and the grief that comes when that love is cut off. The roommates, perfectly played by Gordon and Soo, get the best one-liners. (A favorite, when Nadine is confronted with evidence of the many Russian models she has dated and dumped: “I’m going to have to make right with the Russians, before Putin has me poisoned.”). Krinsky also creates a smart, tenderly rendered backstory to explain Lucy’s inability to let go of old memories.

The whole weight of “The Broken Hearts Gallery” is on Viswanathan’s shoulders, and she carries it like a champ. She captures Lucy’s Manhattan sophistication (good thing, considering the movie’s shot in Toronto), and also the slight desperation behind her sprawling collection of ex-boyfriends’ stuff. Viswanathan has a future as America’s movie sweetheart — and, odds are, a whole lot more.

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‘The Broken Hearts Gallery’

★★★1/2

Opening Friday, September 11, in theaters where open. Rated PG-13 for sexual content throughout and some crude references, strong language and drug references. Running time: 108 minutes.