The Broken Hearts Club

I mentioned this movie a few days ago, so I thought I'd do a quick review for today's entry. The Broken Hearts Club: A Romantic Comedy is as the title indicates, a romantic comedy revolving around the lives of a group of gay male friends who often gather together at a restaurant that is run by father figure Jack (played by John Mahoney, who is better known as Frasier's dad). Some of them work at the restaurant, and they all play on Jack's softball team. Along with Mahoney, the movie has a very impressive cast list including Timothy Olyphant, Dean Cain, Justin Theroux, Zach Braff, and Andrew Keegan. Olyphant's and Keegan's characters, Dennis and Kevin, were my favorites, but Dean Cain was also great as a handsome, cheerfully shallow playboy actor. (Particularly hilarious is the scene where he starts flirting with the catcher on the opposing softball team and gets the guy's phone number by the time he's done.)

Although it's billed as a romantic comedy, and most of the character do go through various romantic entanglements and break-ups, I'd say that the main theme of the story is friendship. The guys banter and bicker with each other in an easy, familiar manner that really makes you believe that they've been best friends for years. And sometimes they argue with each other--at one point towards the end rather seriously and almost viciously. (To be fair, they're under a lot of emotional stress at the time, for spoilery reasons.) But they also love each other like brothers, and when one of them is in trouble, there's no question that they'll set aside their differences and come together to be there for him. So while I enjoyed the romances, what really sold me on the movie was that sense of found families, one of my favorite narrative tropes.

There are a few other things I wanted to discuss about the movie, but I since they involve spoilers, I'll leave some space below for those who don't want to be spoiled.

( Spoilers below the cut... )