Nominated for best foreign film this year, Felix Van Groeningen’s romantic drama The Broken Circle Breakdown is, as the poster describes “a cross between Walk the Line and Blue Valentine” and is a film that capitalizes on the best of both titles, delivering a wonderfully tragic tale of love to audiences that have the pleasure of seeing it.
In The Broken Circle Breakdown we are introduced to Elise (Veerle Baetens) and Didier (Johan Heldenbergh), a couple which are head-over-heels in love with each other. He plays the banjo in a bluegrass band and she owns a tattoo shop, but it’s their love of American culture, especially music, which initially brought them together. We find out shortly into the film that Elise eventually becomes a singer in Didier’s band and that the two also have a child who has cancer. This unfortunate turn of events is what soon tests their love and relationship, if they can find a way to stay together or if a series of unfortunate events will tear them apart. All of this is set to a fantastic bluegrass soundtrack that you’ll want to listen to over and over as this tale of love lost and found unfolds.
The Broken Circle Breakdown takes the liveliness, high spirits and excellent music of Walk the Line and mashes it up with the melodramatic romance of Blue Valentine to create a film that takes you on an emotional rollercoaster ride while also managing to keep you on your toes yet not constantly depressed. The film doesn’t follow a linear narrative structure, instead there is a constant back and forth from present to future, from happy to sad. It’s this constant back and forth and bouncing around that prevents you from knowing everything all at once and keeps you fully engaged with the picture. One minute you’re tapping your foot and smiling to the bluegrass performance on screen and two minutes later you’re angry or sad because something traumatic has happened. It’s a killer of a film and that’s what makes it so amazing.
As you might suspect, when one major problem happens it creates a domino effect, causing their relationship to become strained and Elise soon becomes distant and destructive, unable to cope with the trauma that’s impacted her family’s lives even though her husband is doing what he can to support her and love her. In that regard it’s painful to watch and feels very similar to the Nicole Kidman film Rabbit Hole. I can’t help and but revert back to the greatness of the narrative structure because, in relation to this trauma, as Elise packs her bags after a fight, the director then cuts to when Didier proposes and the two get married. It’s such an effective tool to keep us from getting too depressed throughout the film yet not happy enough to forget about the problems at hand.
While I thoroughly enjoyed the story, I really loved the music in the film and found the use of bluegrass to be an extremely effective backdrop for the story while also introducing the style to people who never really listen to it. It’s a pure form of country music that is played only on acoustic stringed instruments and Van Groeningen’s usage of it throughout the film to highlight certain emotions is key to the film’s success on multiple levels. The best part, in my opinion, is that they sing and perform in English rather than Dutch, proving how much they love this form of American culture.
The aptly titled Belgium film The Broken Circle Breakdown really is a wonderfully difficult film to watch, it’s frustrating and joyous, high spirited and depressing, and it manages to balance the whirlwind of emotions it takes you through without making your brain explode from its inability to settle on one. This well-acted film is certainly worthy of its nomination even if its chances of winning are small, but it might be the most enjoyable of the foreign films nominated this year so be sure to check it out.
Rating: An enjoyably depressing, musically foot-stomping, emotional rollercoaster ride that’s bound to impress all that watch it (8/10)
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