Despite its quirky premise, you could predict the ending of Love, Divided five minutes in. Full of tropes and familiar plot beats, it’d be easy to be disappointed with the outcome of the Spanish rom-com, but I must admit I found the whole thing charming enough to recommend in my review. And the ending is part of that.
The remake of the French comedy Blind Date follows two new neighbors, Valentina and David. She aspires to become a piano player in the Orchestra and is living alone for the first time. He is a noise-hating toymaker who hasn’t left his apartment in three years. The wall separating their apartment is hollow and they can hear everything the other does.
Needless to say, the ending questions if these two are better off staying divided, or if the unlikely connection they strike up through the thin apartment wall is worth pursuing. You don’t need me to tell you what the answer is, but I will anyway.
Trouble In Paradise
After a good few days of dating through the wall, Valentina and David decide to take their relationship to the next level. No, not meeting face-to-face, but introducing each other to their respective best friends. They cook the same meal for the unusual dinner party, but Valentina’s lasagna comes out a bit on the crispy side. Unsurprisingly, neither Carmen nor Nacho thinks too highly about the new couple’s dating arrangement.
With a couple of days left before the big audition, Valentina invites her ex and famed classical music conductor, Oscar, over to give her feedback. When Oscar makes a move on Valentina, David intervenes with some of his loud noises to get the ex out of the apartment. Valentina doesn’t appreciate her neighbor rudely intervening in her life, and the lovebirds have their very first fight.
The relationship gets even more strained when Carmen brings a hookup to Valentina’s apartment. David hears everything from his side of the wall and assumes it’s Valentina getting down and dirty. When Valentina comes home and realizes why David is mad at her, she gets even angrier at him for not trusting her. So she leaves the apartment for the night, potentially forever.
The Reason Why David Turned Into A Recluse
Love, Divided | Image via Netflix
After their fight, David leaves his apartment of his own accord and goes to see Nacho at their shared toy shop. To David’s shock, the business is going bankrupt, and it’s been struggling for some time. We then learn David turned into a recluse in the first place after his fiance’s death, Nacho’s sister.
This is a familiar backstory for someone isolating themselves, so it’s not exactly a big reveal, but it fulfills the intended function of getting David and Valentina’s relationship to the next level. Everything in Love, Divided is like that — a means to an end.
Nacho encourages David to take a chance pursuing the potential of his relationship with Valentina. So he crashes her audition and starts giving her advice on how to play Beethoven from backstage. David is escorted out by a stagehand, but his presence inspires Valentina to go off-script and perform an original song.
A New Door Opens for Valentina
Love, Divided | Image via Netflix
Valentina didn’t get into the classical music school. But one of the judges was so impressed with her voice, that she gave her the card of a music producer who might be interested in working with her.
As Valentina is celebrating this new opportunity for her music career, Oscar appears to offer his ‘hummingbird’ some unneeded encouragement. But Valentina has just about had it with his patronizing ways and tells him as much before running home.
Nacho, who was also at the audition, notices Carmen there with her young son and approaches her. The two hit it off and Carmen invites Nacho to join them for ice cream.
Breaking Down Walls (Literally!)
As soon as Valentina gets home and starts talking to him through their wall, David apologizes and compliments her on being someone who makes him want to leave his house (just what any girl wants to hear!). Valentina asks David if he only wears cowboy boots, which he thankfully denies.
David then does what any mature adult would do when having the woman of their dreams on the other side of a thin, hollow, brick wall — he breaks it. Impressed by the manly display, Valentina enters his apartment through the hole in the wall, and the two share their first kiss.
On the bright side, Valentina didn’t pay a security deposit on her apartment, so no worries about losing that. David never specified if breaking walls was permitted under his rental agreement.
