Review
There are very few films as emotionally raw and truthful as 'The Broken Circle Breakdown'. Set in Belgium and somewhat reminiscent of 'Betty Blue' it tells of the love affair between Didier and Elise a bluegrass musician and a tattoo artist. The story begins with the couple keeping their young daughter company in a cancer ward as she battles for her life against the disease. Flashback sequences interrupt the medical treatments to portray the couple's initial meeting the mad passion of their early romance and some fine performances by Didier's bluegrass band after Elise joins them a vocalist. Some time passes before the film depicts the arrival of the enchanting Maybelle in their lives. Back at the hospital the family dynamic changes as the child endures the toxic effects of chemotherapy her health alternately improving and deteriorating in an agonizing rollercoaster ride towards the young girl's appointment with destiny.
Fracture lines appear in the couple's deep bond as they embark on the next stage of their journey. Atheist Didier rails against a god that could have inflicted such cruel suffering upon his innocent daughter while Elise struggles to process her grief and rediscover hope. Somehow their heroic odyssey into these deeper regions of pain is neither pessimistic nor depressing. This is a film that communicates profound insights about the possibility for love and forgiveness in the darkest of circumstances. By contrast it makes most Hollywood productions look like cynical trite insults to human intelligence. Perhaps they are and maybe audiences should look elsewhere for authentic artistic expression. This film suggests Belgian cinema might be somewhere to start the search.