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The Broken Circle Breakdown Movie Review

The Broken Circle Breakdown is a 2012 Belgian drama film directed by Felix van Groeningen and starring Johan Heldenbergh and Veerle Baetens. It’s a very mediocre movie.

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“Life is not generous“

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Elise and Didier fall in love at first sight, in spite of their differences. When their daughter becomes seriously ill, their love is put on trial. This movie was nominated for an Oscar in the foreign category the next year after its release, and in my opinion this was utterly undeserved as it’s a giant mediocrity and a bore to sit through.

Heldenbergh and Baetens are excellent, there is no denying that. Both of their performances make an impact as both are powerful and grounded while the characters are also solidly written. The acting is the main highlight of the movie.

However, the characters did not appeal to me. I found both of them annoying and their crumbling relationship felt familiar in the context of romantic dramas while the introduced plot point about their sick daughter was also mined for emotion way too much.

The whole film is overly melodramatic to the point of becoming genuinely depressing, but never in a good way. I did not like this tone at all. I found it monotone and overbearing. The film has no complexity to the issues that it tackles. Instead, it is as straightforward and simplistic as you can get, and this type of subject really requires better direction and more mature storytelling.

The Broken Circle Breakdown is also a music film, and I did not care for this music whatsoever. The bluegrass genre is unappealing and very annoying to me, thus the film’s heavy emphasis on this genre made for a very frustrating watch. The songs were overwhelming and they clashed against the otherwise serious drama super hard to the point of becoming unnecessary and distracting.

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Technically speaking, the movie is just okay and this director would make better movies afterward. The pacing is weak as the film is tedious to watch while the dialogue is only serviceable. I simply did not care about it despite some of its strengths.