It has the look of a hipster fever dream, with its banjo playing, bushy beards, copious body art and chicken homesteading. But this Belgian drama is the real deal, an alternately wrenching and ecstatic viewing experience, adapted from a play by lead actor Johan Heldenbergh.
He plays Didier, a lanky musician obsessed with America — “it’s a country of dreamers” — and, especially, its bluegrass music. Didier falls for Elise (Veerle Baetens), a tattoo artist with a killer smile and singing chops that pair well with Didier’s banjo skills. They play in a band, fall in love and eventually have a daughter, who falls gravely ill at an early age.
Elise finds solace in religious symbols and spirituality, while staunch atheist Didier rages against anti-science fundamentalists (like George W. Bush, seen in a clip smugly vetoing stem cell research) while paradoxically losing himself in God-infused Appalachian folk songs.
Director Felix Van Groeningen (“The Misfortunates”) chops up the chronology of the couple’s love and loss, a stylistic choice that invites comparisons to “Blue Valentine.” But “The Broken Circle Breakdown,” though just as gut-punchingly sad as that film, counterbalances the tears with gorgeous music — I’d say it’s closer to being this year’s “Once.”