The Broken Circle Breakdown 2012

Sara Stewart, New York Post: This Belgian drama is the real deal, an alternately wrenching and ecstatic viewing experience, adapted from a play by lead actor Johan Heldenbergh. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: This is terribly sad stuff, and "The Broken Circle Breakdown" unapologetically explores melodrama; these characters experience big, dramatic emotions, and the movie rides on those waves. Read more

Boyd van Hoeij, Variety: Breakdown's less convincingly scripted second half sputters more often than it shines. Read more

Kyle Ryan, AV Club: Once viewers adjust to the cognitive dissonance between intense Flemish dialogue and English performances of country and bluegrass songs,The Broken Circle Breakdown is a film that will likely stick with them long after the credits roll. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: It's a tricky journey. What helps hold it together in addition to the music are the performances. Read more

Peter Keough, Boston Globe: Wastes its potential for honest emotion with schmaltz, cheap shots, and cliches. Read more

Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader: The movie swings like a pendulum between elation and despair, with little time devoted to anything in between. Read more

William Goss, Film.com: A superb tearjerker, juxtaposing the inherent passion and sorrow of romance to masterful effect in between beautiful bluegrass ballads. Read more

David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter: Invigorating musical elements and the lead actors' potent chemistry can't entirely protect this tragic relationship drama from its encroaching shortage of subtlety. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: Breakdown gets the music right and has the benefit of strong acting, but its unapologetically melodramatic plot has a tendency to throw everything at you but the kitchen sink. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: The Broken Circle Breakdown manages to pull off a small miracle, using joyous music and tenderness to tell a tragic story that moves you but doesn't depress you Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: For any viewer who, for one reason or another, has been shamefully ignorant of Belgian bluegrass, here is your opportunity to make amends. Read more

Jordan Hoffman, New York Daily News: Tune up your banjos and break out the hankies. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: After a while, the temporal shuffling feels more programmatic than revelatory and increasingly false. Read more

Michael Sragow, Orange County Register: This movie about a Belgian bluegrass banjo-player and his family is filled with dazzling lyrical heights and deflating melodramatic lows. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: The Broken Circle Breakdown deftly juggles some heavy-duty themes: not just the crisis of cancer, parents faced with the possible loss of a child, but the eternal questions. Read more

Walter V. Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle: It's the story of a young married couple undone by a family tragedy, but the film loses its way, at one point turning into a political harangue. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: The soundtrack is irresistible, the cast is enthralling and the passions are universal. Read more

Bruce Ingram, Chicago Sun-Times: It's the music that really brings Broken Circle to life, an excellent collection of old-timey country classics and originals that reconnects the broken bits of the story and resonates with its deepest emotions. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: Traditional bluegrass songs of loss and grief provide the inspiration and score for this innovative Belgian, Flemish-language musical drama. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: When the band is onscreen, the film becomes alive, even as we know the misery the smiles are hiding and the pain that the harmonies seek to ease. Read more

Cath Clarke, Time Out: Heldenbergh and Baetens pull you in with committed performances -- their raw pain and grief is totally believable. Read more

David Fear, Time Out: Both Baetens and Heldenbergh do their best to sell the story's ups and downs even when the narrative gets bogged down with science-versus-religion ranting, yet you're still left with a movie a little too reliant on playing clawhammer on your heartstrings. Read more

Jon Frosch, Village Voice: The Broken Circle Breakdown holds you even as it flies off the tracks. Read more

Stephanie Merry, Washington Post: Some moments of the movie might leave viewers feeling bereft or gut-punched, but the sublime sounds (along with the sweet and silly scenes of the pair falling in love) provide respites from the sorrow. Read more