Reviewed by Adam Stephen Kelly
Stars Larry Jones, Maya Gilbert, Michael Monks, Sean Ross, Gwendolyn Edwards | Written by Angelo Bell
UK certification Unrated | UK RRP £7.99 | DVD Region 0 | Runtime 109 minutes | Directed by Angelo Bell
Made independently on a shoestring budget and adapted from the writer-director's own short film from 2006, Broken Hearts Club is Angelo Bell's indie masterpiece.
The story of Broken Hearts Club sees leading criminal psychiatrist Terrence Thiebold (Jones) given a brand new set of patients, only they're not clinically insane, they're clinically heartbroken. Terrence has to adapt to not only a new style of treatment, but a variety of different love-lost personalities who each have their own stories of separation and betrayal to tell, all while trying to overcome an emotional obstacle the scale of which he has never faced before.
A heart-warming drama with splashes of comedy, Broken Hearts Club is an absolute triumph in independent film-making. In horror, the lack of a budget is often compensated with cheap and cheerful special effects and an amount of gore that would give a slaughterhouse a run for its money, but when a film-maker attempts a serious drama on a low budget, there is no easy way out and the script has to be spot on for the film to work.
I could not be happier to say that this is exactly the case, and then some, for this Angelo Bell picture. Not only is the script spot on, it's conveyed to the actors and delivered by the characters fantastically. The humour is genuinely funny and the drama gripping and tense. You give a damn about the characters because they're real: individual cinematic portraits of romantic strife. There are no products of a cookie cutter to be found in this film.
I am well and truly in awe. It is one of the best independent films I have ever seen. The writing is excellent and it's well shot, with rich colour, and not a hokey performance in sight. I am excited to see what Bell does next. An outstanding film.
EXTRAS ★ The trailer.