The Breaker-Upperers

The Breaker-Upperers (2018) is a New Zealand independent romantic-comedy film that enjoyed international success and was recently picked up for streaming on Netflix. The full-length feature is written by, directed, and stars comedy duo Madeleine Sami and Jackie van Beek. As a way of avoiding fixing the problems in their own lives, best friends Mel (Sami) and Jen (van Beek) form an agency that people can hire to break up with the other part of their couples (often with conceits like singing telegrams).

While the main plot conflict involves when Mel becomes involved with and pregnant with a young man who hired the two women to break up with his girlfriend, the true main relationship is the friendship between Mel and Jen. The two have gotten into a lot of trouble with each other, but have a deep platonic love for each other, and a relationship where they recognize each other’s strengths as well as their faults.

There can be times when the relationship chafes because one or the other is stubborn, or is too stuck in bad patterns or fear of change, so that at times it becomes concerning if the two will continue their friendship.

Mel is very open and accepting of her bisexuality, and Jen and the rest of the community don’t bat an eye whenever she mentions it. (Oh, and she uses the term “bi” freely and with her whole chest, imagine that!) There is a particularly great scene where the two besties talk about bisexuality on the hood of their car. That scene alone makes it worth the time to watch the film.

Mel stands out as a fully developed bi woman of color with a rich backstory that extends far beyond her sexuality. She’s portrayed with authentic depth, displaying the full spectrum of human emotions, desires, needs, hopes, and fears that make her character feel real. However, a problematic subplot emerges when she continues a serious relationship with a much younger, intellectually limited client, which comes across as either manipulative or dangerously naive. Despite this questionable narrative choice, the story ultimately delivers a rare and satisfying conclusion by granting this complex bi character a genuinely happy ending.

While Sami is not bi (though she does play another famously bi character on Our Flag Means Death), the creation and pointing out of Mel’s bisexuality was deliberate on the part of the creators, and for manifold reasons. When speaking to X-Press Magazine, both creators spoke about specifically avoiding the trope in queer films of making Mel and Jen into a couple:

Madeleine, what was it like playing Mel as obviously a queer character, a bisexual character, but that not being how she is solely defined?

[Sami]: We didn’t have a lot of it written. We knew that about her as a character, but I actually improvised a lot I those bisexual references. We even got a note that we needed to make it clearer. At the same time, I was very aware that I wanted to present the relationship as platonic, because often a bisexual character would lead to a coming out story for Jen, and they’d become a couple. I wanted to avoid that.

[Van Beek]: We didn’t want to make it a thing. Yeah, she’s bisexual, that’s the way it is.

And when speaking with LogoTV.com, Sami pointed out the importance of saying bi on film, and what it meant for Mel:

How did Mel’s sexuality come to be?

[Sami] We wanted to reflect the reality of the world we live in, but we didn’t want to build a story around it. We wanted it to be part of the fabric of our story. We wanted it to feel like life.

Even within the LGBTQ community, the bisexual community often goes underrepresented.

Yeah, people sort of feel ashamed to use the word bisexual, like they’re gonna be judged for not being able to choose what they prefer. My friends who are bisexual have always felt like they’ve never been able to be quite as confident with [their sexuality] as my gay and lesbian friends.

But Mel really owns her bisexuality.

Yeah! Subconsciously, she keeps talking about it because she is wanting to experience the feelings again. She’s blocked off that part of herself for so long, so I think the reason she mentions it so much in the film is because she needs to probably have sex!

Overall, The Breaker-Upperers is a heartwarming, crowd-pleasing modern queer classic that is well worth watching, and Mel is a great (and still rare, unfortunately) of a fully-formed bi female lead character of color.