“Break-ups are never easy, especially when your ex-girlfriend already checked out several months before the official end. Twentysomething Harmony, however, just can’t seem to drop his torch for the departed Jessica even as his motley crew of friends, his gleefully odd family, and his obnoxious boss repeatedly remind him that he isn’t the only one with issues.

Starring indie rock musician Justin Rice as the mournful Harmony and featuring such indie film stalwarts as Kevin Corrigan and Alex Karpovsky as Harmony’s dubiously comforting friends, Bob Byington’s film is an offbeat and insightful dissection of the kind of aimless, quotidian pain that can wind up being both hilarious and creative. Harmony seems like a lost cause, but as he composes a song at his piano lessons and jams with the band at a family wedding, he finds a way out of being the fool he evokes with Madonna’s “Borderline” in this rough-hewn yet eloquent ode to art’s restorative power.” (official festival synopsis)

When Jessica dumps Harmony, Harmony feels his feelings. He gets pretty standard with his relationship mourning – he morosely hangs around places they used to go together, aimlessly wanders by other places he think she might be, and is completely deaf to other women. Harmony also wears a locket around his neck that contains a picture of Jessica. He has a speech he uses to explain the locket and the girl in it to anyone who even looks at it sideways. The first time we hear Harmony’s little heartbreak schpiel, it’s actually very sad. Kudos to Justin Rice for making the line, “my heart is a snack” actually resonant with an audience. But, as the film continues on, and we hear Harmony’s speech over and over, to all sorts of people with all sorts of reactions, it becomes incredibly funny. There’s something to be said about going through the motions of heartbreak, and how the repetition of such acts might actually help heal someone up, and that’s what ultimately happens to Harmony.

Harmony certainly has a “motley crew of friends” in his life, and a wacky group of co-workers at his nondescript job, and a mother and younger brother who absolutely march to their own drummer. But no characters are so outrageous that they’re unbelievable, HARMONY & ME doesn’t go for whiz-bang giggles with outlandish characters. Everyone’s life is populated by weirdos, Harmony’s is no different. It’s obvious that everyone loves him, from his equally as heartbroken piano teacher to his slightly deranged neighbor. It’s also obvious that everyone hates Jessica, who definitely doesn’t earn any points with the audience as she continually humiliates Harmony every chance she gets. We all know Harmony deserves better, but no one with a broken (snacked on?) heart wants to hear that about their breaker.

HARMONY & ME is filmed in such a way that it often feels like a documentary, like we’re stalking Harmony on his journey out of heartbreak. Because of this, it’s hard to not feel close to Harmony, even when we’re laughing hysterically at the next curveball thrown at him – Jessica on a date with his boss, a funeral that breeds total honesty, pondering the meaning of marriage, comas, and his little brother’s increasingly inappropriate wardrobe choices. HARMONY & ME is about simultaneously finding humor and reason in life, even when it seems impossible, even when your heart is breaking. It’s 75 minutes made up of the real stuff of life, just a little funnier, just carrying a better tune.