The Broken Circle Breakdown (15) 111 mins ***
Advance word on this
Flemish tearjerker was formidable, but I’m afraid I couldn’t quite see past the
oddness of its conceit: to redo Blue Valentine with songs. Felix van Groeningen’s film at least justifies its
title’s eccentricity: the relationship between a beardy bluegrass singer (Johan
Heldenbergh) and a tattooed free spirit (Veerle Baetens) is set out as
fragments of life before and after the death of their young child, scrapbooking
nudey frolics alongside heavily-worn regret. The music lends it whatever unity
it has: though there’s a certain comic incongruity in the idea of all this
banjo-plucking going down in Northern Europe – the spirit of Rednex lingers –
it’s chiefly regarded as a fleeting source of solace. The leads emote their
hearts out, and it’ll doubtless make a resonant soundtrack album – but van
Groeningen needs those tunes to carry us over his somewhat contrived and flatpack-like
vision of bohemia.
The Broken Circle Breakdown opens in selected cinemas from today.
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