The Broken Circle Breakdown Reviews

Thanks to my filmclub, I discovered Felix Van Groeningen and I was quite eager to check this movie which was apparently his best directing effort so far. Well, I wasn't disappointed, that's for sure,  as the damned thing turned out to be a fascinating and heartbreaking drama. I mean, to be honest, the story itself was actually rather generic. Basically, they gave us a nice couple who falls in love and when everything seems to be perfect for them, they are faced with a massive tragedy which was obviously nothing new. However, the big difference with this movie is that this couple was just fascinating to follow. Indeed, even though they were immensely charismatic, they didn't feel like the usual super-stars you get in your typical Hollywood production, they felt like some genuinely regular people which made them much more mesmerizing to follow. It did help that the music they played was just amazing and, of course, Van Groeningen should get some credit as well as the directing was really strong here. Hell, even this usually terribly useless and annoying gimmick of going back and forth in time worked very well thanks to him. To conclude, even if it was maybe nothing really groundbreaking, I really loved the damned thing and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

The 86th academy award is ruled by the European nominees in the foreign movie category. The movie took the advantage of nonlinear storytelling. From present to past to future. Frequently everything keeps delivering the surprises. If you arrange all the story together properly, you would find a typical thematic. I must say the editing was what made the movie a better product. I think the best one I have seen from the recent on the editing perspective. Sadly, it was snubbed, in that category for 2014 OSCAR. This cancer theme movie is well deserved a place in the shortlist for foreign the foreign movie category.

What I found short in the movie was the emotions. They had sufficient, but did not convince me all along. I usually wet my eye for the cancer theme when a character dies of it. But in this movie I grieved along the other character, but could not find a drop. All I was interested in fascinating characters. It was over a 100 minute movie, but I felt the pace was in a hurry. The transformation of a scene to another had broad skip in the timeline. When you watch the kid being treated for her ill in the first phase, in the next scene you would find her in a critical stage. Like that, it was racing towards the next stage of story development.

It was kind nice to see two different characters falling in love and have a baby without knowing the consequences. They face it only when it begins to happen. So the story being told in that context in many pieces of flashbacks. The country musics and songs were good. The performances were also very natural from both the leads. It was well made from the directional viewpoint because of the well known contents to make it believable. In one word, it is well adapted stage play into a full length feature.