“The Broken Circle Breakdown” is a thoughtful dissection of a love affair destroyed by external influences beyond the control of anyone. But more than that, it is a revealing portrait of how people deal with a mutual tragedy, unable to reconcile differences that seemed so small before and balloon into explosions from which one cannot recover. It is about passion, love, family, sadness and tragedy.
Elise, a tattoo artist, and Didier, a musician in a bluegrass band meet one afternoon and are immediately struck. It is as if their partnership is pre-ordained. His music brings them even closer together as she joins her lyrical singing voice to their acoustic instruments. Her accidental pregnancy almost derails the relationship as Didier has never considered fatherhood as even a remote possibility. He cherishes his independence and is discomfited by the idea of being wholly responsible for another being, one as dependent and vulnerable as a child. Elise, free-spirited and emotional misinterprets his shock and reflection as a lack of commitment on his part and a tiny tear in the fabric appears. But enormous growth in the relationship occurs with the birth of the beautiful Maybell, luminous, a dancer in the air around them.
Maybell seems able to reconcile the two disparate parts to her parents’ personalities as Elise has a fundamental belief in the spiritual and Didier is firmly grounded in science and the belief that this is all there is. When Maybell sees a bird crash into a window and die, crestfallen she holds it in her hands wondering what to do. What will happen to it? Didier’s response is that they will put it in the dustbin because, he explains, like the chickens, birds have bones and therefore can’t go into the compost heap. Perplexed, Maybell runs off with the dead bird telling her father that he is wrong; this is not what her mother has told her. She is sure the bird will become a star and she will be able to see it every night. She allows her father his views but she subscribes to those of her mother.
The love of Didier and Elise blooms exponentially as they raise their beautiful daughter until, one horrible day, she falls ill. Both parents cling together, working for miracles and doing everything possible to save their daughter. But the unthinkable happens and the strength that bound them together previously begins to unravel as the recriminations begin. It’s always the little the things and previous small differences fester and explode. It is the guilt and the need to blame others for failings beyond their control
Divorce statistics would bear out the impact that such a strain puts on even marriages that seemed solid before such a tragedy. Everyone has different coping mechanisms and those of the protagonists of “The Broken Circle Breakdown” are realistic. It is human nature to try to ascribe blame to another person or organization when there is no other explanation and both religion and rational reasoning fail.
In telling this tale, based on a play by Johan Heldenbergh, writer Carl Joos and writer/director Felix van Groeningen have chosen to use a disjointed time frame. Starting near the end of the marriage, as Maybell is dying, van Groningen refocuses on the beginning of the relationship, veering back and forth, showing who they are in non-chronological sequence. An interesting approach but one that, in the end diminishes some of the power because the viewer has not invested fully in where they are headed, lessening, if that is possible, the effect of Maybell’s death and Elise’s ultimate break with everything she loved and thought she knew. It becomes, unfortunately, slightly clinical,
The performances are of the highest caliber. Johan Heldenbergh, the author of the original play, is a rational, humanist Didier prone to a need to explain everything in scientific terms. Dispassionate and objective, he has, however, a strong inner warmth and overwhelming love for his wife and daughter. Veerle Baetens, Elise, has won numerous awards for her role in this film and it is easy to see why. A beautiful blonde with a set jaw and steely eyes, she exudes grace, magnetism and passion. Her Elise has loved often but not too long; disappointment and optimism are both etched in her features. With movie-star presence, it is impossible not to watch her.
“The Broken Circle Breakdown” is a good movie, just not a great one. The narrative is interesting but the original framing device draws one out rather than pulling one in, thus diminishing the raw impact of events as they play out at the end. The bluegrass music performed by Didier, Elise and the band that frames many of the scenes is absolutely wonderful.
Opening Friday November 8 at the Nuart.
