{"id":407,"date":"2014-07-03T18:16:59","date_gmt":"2014-07-03T18:16:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=407"},"modified":"2026-09-14T16:32:30","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T20:32:30","slug":"the-broken-circle-breakdown-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=407","title":{"rendered":"The Broken Circle Breakdown-2012"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>The Broken Circle Breakdown-2012<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Director Felix Van Groeningen<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Starring Veerle Baetens, Johan Heldenbergh<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Scott&#8217;s Review #91<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/70271651.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1199\" src=\"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/70271651-210x300.jpg\" alt=\"70271651\" width=\"210\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/70271651-210x300.jpg 210w, https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/70271651.jpg 284w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 210px) 100vw, 210px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Reviewed July 3, 2014<\/p>\n<p><strong>Grade: B+<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Broken Circle Breakdown is a 2012 Belgian film nominated for the Best Foreign Language Oscar.<\/p>\n<p>It tells a dark story of a couple with very different religious beliefs- one atheist, the other a devout catholic- whose six-year-old daughter is battling cancer.<\/p>\n<p>Their differences escalate over time as life circumstances change.<\/p>\n<p>The film begins in 2006 but constantly goes back and forth in time from when the couple meets and falls in love and begins performing in a bluegrass band together to their current dire situation in the present.<\/p>\n<p>This is a clever aspect of the film.<\/p>\n<p>It is far from a by-the-numbers happy-couple-with-sick-daughter type of film. It is much deeper than that and quite depressing and dreary overall.<\/p>\n<p>The pain and hardships this family goes through are heart-wrenching, especially as the film focuses on the happy time in their lives to contrast the pain.<\/p>\n<p>In the second half, the film explores politics and religion, including the then-controversial (2002) topic of stem cell research.<\/p>\n<p>As dark as this film is to watch, it is also important because it steps outside the box and tackles difficult subject matter.<\/p>\n<p>I wish more films would do the same.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Oscar Nominations:<\/strong> Best Foreign Language Film<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Broken Circle Breakdown-2012 Director Felix Van Groeningen Starring Veerle Baetens, Johan Heldenbergh Scott&#8217;s Review #91 Reviewed July 3, 2014 Grade: B+ The Broken Circle Breakdown is a 2012 Belgian film nominated for the Best Foreign Language Oscar. It tells a dark story of a couple with very different religious beliefs- one atheist, the other &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=407\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The Broken Circle Breakdown-2012<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,3692,192,41,211,35,213,222],"tags":[3697,3698,3699],"class_list":["post-407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2012-films","category-belgian","category-dramas","category-indiefilms","category-indie-dramas","category-foreignfilms","category-foreign-dramas","category-romantic-dramas","tag-felix-van-groeningen","tag-johan-heldenbergh","tag-veerle-baetens"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=407"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24487,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407\/revisions\/24487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}