REVIEW - THE BROKEN CIRCLE BREAKDOWN

Felix van Groeningen's romantic drama is too schizophrenic and too ambitious for its own good, but maybe that is what's good about it. A formulaic first half gives way to a rancidly melodramatic second, where van Groeningen still can't focus on the heart of his storyline with much ease, but one could argue that the film needs this lack of focus, since what breakdown ever was clean and simple, and unpolluted with the kind of chaotic instability that cruel circumstance can inflict upon a relationship? And the emotional unwieldiness is mirrored in a structural one too, yet this does not overcomplicate the film - rather, it guides us through the chronology of a partnership in a sensitive and thus most affecting manner, and we come to understand the kind of trauma this couple has been subjected to. van Groeningen has a mainline to our hearts, too, in his sensational bluegrass soundtrack, with lead vocals from his lead actors, Veerle Baetens and Johan Heldenbergh. They're committed actors and beautiful singers, and they anchor The Broken Circle Breakdown with memorable performances both in acting and in singing. Their young daughter, afflicted with cancer, is played by Nell Cattrysse, who delivers one of the most notable debuts before the camera in recent years. It leaves me dumbfounded that someone born in 2006 can possess such a talent for acting. The screenplay is adapted from the play by Heldenbergh and Mieke Dobbels, and a sudden, brief but pivotal sojourn into politics near the end ought to have been excised, though otherwise the writers have done an excellent job in expanding the script for the screen.