Love, Divided follows Valentina and David falling in love while living in two different apartments separated only by a thin wall. The film is currently streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
Valentina moves to a new home after leaving his ex Óscar’s place. She is a pianist who has an audition in three weeks. However, her neighbor makes the practice sessions incredibly difficult.
She is constantly perturbed by the scary noises from the other side of the thin wall that separates her apartment from the one where David lives. He’s a genius toy maker and a pretty hardcore anti-social.
He is irked by her piano playing, and she by his tinkering. He intentionally wants to move her out of her home, as he’s done with former neighbors, but Valentina is different. She comes up with her own unique noises to mess with him.
He ultimately concedes and the two have a truce. As per the new deal they both agree to, she will practice in the mornings, while he does his work later. She also has a new job as a waitress at the smoothie bar just around the corner.
The two neighbors gradually warm up to each other and share and confide in each other their stories and aspirations. She wanted to be a singer but how she seeks to make a living playing piano, something her ex — who she’s grateful for for a lot of things — kind of imposed on her.
He made a game called ‘Breaking Mind’ years ago that was a hit. He’s been working on his next one, titled ‘Ultimax,’ for three years now. His best friend Nacho regularly brings him groceries and insists on having him get out, but David can’t.
David and Valentina fall for each other, and after they fail to meet each other and since their lives are not exactly conducive to a conventional romance at this time, they decide to start dating as neighbors who never see each other.
They drag their beds near the wall and bond, socialize, and entertain each other in a thousand ways, along with sleeping and waking up at the same time. However, they never see each other.
Valentina’s cousin and best friend, Carmen; and David’s best friend Nacho, both think the two are out of their minds, but also think that this kind of love is special. However, Valentina and David soon have a falling out because of some misunderstandings and erred social cues.
She finally goes to her audition and David gets backstage and fires her up to play with the kind of emotion she had played with earlier, with his company on the other side of the wall.
It works, and she gives an ethereal performance, playing piano and singing. She is rewarded for her daring display of taking the helm of her dreams in her own hands.
She runs off to meet David and the two finally come face to face, as Love, Divided rolls the credits.
Ending explained:
Love, undivided
To help her with her practice before the fast-approaching audition, Valentina invites her ex Óscar to the place and asks David to not say anything for the time he would be there.
Óscar is his ignorance, arrogant, and insensitive self, while calling Valentina ‘mon petit hummingbird’ like always, and also making a move on her, which Valentina shuts down quickly. David is irked by all of this when she shows Óscar the door.
He expresses his disbelief and jealous frustrations, asking Valentina why she would even invite him, to which she takes offense, because the last thing she wants during this stressful time is for someone else to tell her what she must and mustn’t do.
David didn’t mean to butt in her life like that but he can’t clarify that, and the two drift apart for a while.
Later, Carmen has a hookup with a man at Valentina’s apartment, and David thinks the lecherous sounds are all because Valentina must be having sex with someone.
She later tries to clarify that it wasn’t her but she also realizes that this unique situationship of theirs is clearly not working out. So they drift further away.
At her audition, David eventually arrives to motivate Valentina from backstage, while she’s midway through her performance. Her playing receives rather bad and unenthused remarks from the judges, but she doesn’t get up.
Instead, Valentina busts out into a song, as she plays the piano. It’s her own original composition that she had performed for David once.
She doesn’t get the gig as a piano player, but a judge does give her the contact of a music producer who’s looking for a fresh voice. She has made her decision regarding what she wants to do and it’s already bearing fruit.
She runs off to her apartment and goes to the wall, greeting David, who apologizes to her.
The two make up and after she initiates an attack on the wall dividing them, he rises up to the occasion and breaks it down, before the two embrace and kiss each other as the credits appear.
Óscar, Carmen, and Nacho
Óscar got Valentina out of her hometown and got her the best teachers. He essentially discovered her. She says she owes him everything and wouldn’t be up for the audition if it weren’t for him.
Despite her high praise and gratitude for him, Valentina has always lived in his shadow, walking the path she hasn’t carved out for herself but one that has been illuminated by him.
He doesn’t let her follow what she truly wants, which is to be a singer. Instead, he directs her to the piano and expects her to become a player. And yet, he doesn’t really believe in her.
She has had enough of playing Beethoven like he wants her to, and she’s quite over the “hummingbird” nickname he keeps calling her. She expresses her gratitude but also makes it clear that she’s off to her own path moving forward.
Meanwhile, Nacho, who is the brother of David’s fianceé who died, gets to meet Valentina’s cousin Carmen through the wall when the love birds introduce them to each other. They play a game of guessing what others like.
Nacho can’t get a thing right about Carmen but she pegs him exactly right. Before Love, Divided ends, the two meet each other after Valentina’s audition. She introduces him to her son, and they gel well instantly.
There is something romantic cooking between the two and they are off enjoying ice cream together, with a chance of a happy-ever-after very much alive.
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