Hayden Kane
There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes
Keeley Coleman
The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;
Quiet Muffin
This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.
Thomas Drufke
Sometimes foreign language films can be surprisingly moving because you're forced to engage more with the facial expressions and unspoken acting than you would with your native language based films. The Broken Circle Breakdown is exactly that. Heartbreaking, relentlessly emotional, and undeniably honest, you never feel comfortable watching this film and are constantly challenged to feel some sort of happiness with the dread that's happening on screen. Although all these things are true, I do feel like there wasn't enough explanation of what the point of all this was. Or just simply, what the film was trying to say. Is it just telling us that amidst all that's good and lovely with the world is an insane amount of sadness and despair. And I guess that's fine, but I could have used a bit more depth.7.5/10
rafael13234
This Belgian production, nominated for Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, is one of those great human dramas, the kind that believes in scenes tragedies (separation, accident, illness) and greater representation of human depth. The story revolves around Elise (Veerle Baetens) and Didier (Johan Heldenbergh), he is a romantic musician and she is a owner of a tattoo parlor. Despite the differences, the relationship works well and they have a daughter, Maybelle (Nell Cattrysse). At six the girl is seriously ill and the family is destabilized. Both Bohemians do what they can, but the child's situation is very serious.
Red_Identity
Definitely reminds me a lot of Blue Valentine, even if not as refined. By that, I mean that it feels like the story is thinner and that it seems to have less of a goal. The circumstances are even more tragic though, involving the two leads' daughter. This isn't an easy film to watch at times, but the music and the performances really elevate the thin screenplay. Some of the music here is glorious, and the two leads give some pretty strong work that is bound to bring tears to many people's eyes. The cinematography is also really beautiful, highlighting the right colors as to give emphasis to the emotions the leads are feeling. Overall, definitely recommended.
Likes_Ninjas90
The Belgian feature The Broken Circle Breakdown has a booming political voice and a pair of committed performances but as a film it does not work. It is apparent that the narrative was moulded heavily for the screen but without fully embracing and adapting to the filmic medium. The story is about a couple named Didier (Johan Heldenbergh) and Elise (Veerle Baetens). They have been a couple for seven years and sing together in a bluegrass band. Didier wants to live like a cowboy because he loves American country music and Elise, while covered in her own tattoos that detail her previous relationships, is running a tattoo parlour. The couple is told their five year old daughter Maybelle (Nell Cattrysse) has been diagnosed with cancer. Using a non-linear structure, the director Felix van Groeningen cuts between this present day crisis and then back to when the couple first met. He also flashes forward to a pivotal future moment when Elise herself is being rushed to hospital. The shape of the narrative is a stylistic choice rather than a psychological one because the time shifts do not enrich the depth or meaning of the lives of the characters. The lead work by Johan Heldenbergh (Didier) and Veerle Baetens (Elise) is adequate and the music is cheerful but in spite of the bleak premise the film isn't an emotional force.The fate of a child and the subsequent breakdown of the family unit isn't a new idea either because there have been an immeasurable number of films depicting this tragedy. Lars von Trier's Antichrist (2009) is one of the recent and grimmer examples. For Groeningen the adaptation process is a far greater problem than originality. The script he and Carl Joos have written is from the play "The Broken Circle Breakdown Featuring Cover-Ups of Alabama", by Heldenbergh himself and Mieke Dobbels. One of the difficulties with translating a play to a film is the contrasting forms of the two mediums. A play is almost entirely dialogue driven, while cinema is largely a visual medium, relying heavily on images to tell a story. The play apparently featured a number of monologues that Groeningen admits would not have been cinematic if they were included in the film. Consequently, some of the characterisation has been lost and the two characters seem rather flimsy. Groeningen has also said that he has not plotted the film through story but emotion, which accounts for why it isn't very eventful till late in the piece and why it lacks a strong through-line. Similarly, Maybelle's sickness forces the two adult characters to be reactionary and express themselves largely from their emotions and dialogue, like a play, rather than providing them with something to act upon. The music performances are injected to redeem this problem and to provide more "action". They are a pleasant diversion, even though the instruments are sometimes too loud for the singing voices. The bumps in the script must have been visible to Groeningen because he tries hiding them within the non-linear storytelling. He admitted that the structure was developed in the film's editing process. For a little while the dual timelines dissolve the story's dramatic simplicity. A slick overlap between the timelines contrasts Didier and Elise building a home for their child and then cuts to the present as they bring Maybelle back to the finished property from the hospital. However, the structure is largely window-dressing, covering for what is mostly a simple melodrama with loud political ideas. Didier and Elise exist to verbalise an ideological and social debate. When tragedy strikes, Didier blames the Bush administration for fighting against stem cell research, while Elise is driven by her faith and the possibility of spiritual healing. The director offers no subtlety in expressing Didier's atheist viewpoint. He zooms in on footage of George W. Bush speaking on television and allows Didier to yell at an audience, in monologue style, about the failures of the US government and religious conformity. The play originally came out in 2008, just a year after the Bush administration was replaced. The scientific debate would have been timelier several years ago. Once the tragedy unfolds and the flashy narrative structure is pared back, the film's verbal friction takes over and the parents blame each other for the grief in their lives. But everything is pitched at such an overly melodramatic level that I found myself resisting the film rather than being moved by it.
