Broken Hearts Club, The

Writer/director Greg Berlanti follows a small circle of friends through the ups and downs of love and sex. What sets Berlanti’s film apart from other gay-themed romantic comedies that have been blooming on the indie-cinema circuit (Jeffrey, Trick, Better Than Chocolate, Relax … It’s Just Sex) is his playful ear for dialogue, his smooth and unobtrusive direction and the good-natured, unforced performances he draws from his ensemble cast (Timothy Olyphant, Dean Cain, Billy Porter, John Mahoney, Ben Weber). Berlanti avoids most of the clichés (no lip-synching drag queens here), though he can’t resist letting one character die as the film nears its end. Despite that brief flourish of discreet pathos, Berlanti ends on a note of optimism, and the whole film has an easygoing, articulate charm.