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The Broken Hearts Club The Broken Hearts Club
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Grade: C+

Verdict: A gay comedy that's sometimes funny, sometimes a yawn.

Details: Starring Dean Cain, Timothy Olyphant and Andrew Keegan. Rated profanity, drug use and some sexual content. One hour, 50 minutes.

Rate it: Write your own review

Review: The big marketing push with "The Broken Hearts Club - A Romantic Comedy" is that it's a gay film for everybody.

It's hard to believe any film is for everybody. One would guess "Mrs. Doubtfire" was designed for every single one of us to enjoy, lap up and roll around in. "Forrest Gump," too.

Thankfully, there are a few folks (sadly, not enough to stem the lovefest, but a stalwart few) who couldn't stomach either.

"Broken Hearts Club," a sellout at Image's recent 15th Annual Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, isn't in the buffoonery league of "Mrs. Doubtfire" or "Forrest Gump," but it is indeed not for every moviegoer.

It is a somewhat different approach to gay characters than we usually see at the movies. Nobody's got AIDS and few even talk about it. Nobody's overtly anguished over his sexuality. Nobody's the target of brutal hate jokes.

"Broken Hearts" is a routine, sometimes humorous, sometimes boring relationship comedy that happens to feature a half-dozen gay male characters. They're friends. They're lovers. They're on the make. They are looking, looking, looking.

Dean Cain is Cole, the good-looking, love-'em-and-leave-'em, fledgling actor. Timothy Olyphant ("Scream 2") is Dennis, the photographer wondering if he can commit after years of one-night stands. Andrew Keegan ("10 Things I Hate About You") portrays the young dude contemplating coming out. Matt McGrath and Justin Theroux play Howie and Marshall, the couple teetering on a breakup.

They're joined by John Mahoney, Nia Long, Mary McCormack and others as gay men and lesbians maneuvering through life with its pitfalls of bad dates, backstabbing and "just getting older" birthdays.

The guys play baseball (badly), they fall into messy relationships (routinely) and spew jokes about each other and themselves (constantly). "Gay men in L.A. are a bunch of 10s looking for an 11," one of them says at their restaurant/bar hangout. "On a drunk night, I'm a 6."

Sammy Davis Jr. is on the soundtrack crooning, "We've Got a Lot of Living To Do."

"Broken Hearts" doesn't break much new ground. Actually, "The Boys in the Band" did the groundbreaking 30 years ago.

Bob Longino, Cox News Service

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