The Broken Circle Breakdown
The Broken Circle Breakdown Image
Metascore
61

Generally favorable reviews - based on 4 Critics What's this?

until movie release
  • Summary: Elise (Veerle Baetens) and Didier (Johan Heldenbergh) fall in love at first sight. She has her own tattoo shop and he plays the banjo in a bluegrass band. They bond over their shared enthusiasm for American music and culture, and dive headfirst into a sweeping romance that plays out on and off stage — but when an unexpected tragedy hits their new family, everything they know and love is tested. An intensely moving portrait of a relationship from beginning to end, propelled by a soundtrack of foot-stomping bluegrass, The Broken Circle Breakdown is a romantic melodrama of the highest order. [Tribeca Film]… Expand

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 4
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 4
  3. Negative: 0 out of 4
  1. The Playlist
    Reviewed by: Jessica Kiang
    Jul 9, 2013
    83
    While Felix von Groeningen's film, which centers around a couple whose child is diagnosed with cancer, could easily have strayed into maudlin territory, the deft, non-chronological structure and the constantly surprising, beautiful performances -- both acting and the musical -- elevate it well clear of any Movie of the Week associations.
  2. Variety
    Reviewed by: Boyd van Hoeij
    Sep 23, 2013
    60
    Sophisticated cutting brings out the story’s complex emotional undercurrents, though “Breakdown’s” less convincingly scripted second half sputters more often than it shines.
  3. Time Out London
    Reviewed by: Cath Clarke
    Oct 15, 2013
    60
    Heldenbergh and Baetens pull you in with committed performances ­– their raw pain and grief is totally believable. But all that honest, intense emotion is thrown away as the film outstays its welcome by 40 minutes or so, piling one tragedy on to another.
  4. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: David Rooney
    Sep 23, 2013
    60
    The non-linear structure works extremely well, making the drama a bracing emotional roller coaster of feel-good/feel-bad turns.

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