Just after the Academy Awards wrapped up this year, I watched one of the nominees for best foreign film, though it didn't win. It is called The Broken Circle Breakdown, from Belgium. Most of the film is in Flemish (a form of Dutch spoken in Flanders), one of those Germanic languages that sounds a lot like English in places (when they say "Wow," or "dat's ober der," we don't need a translation). But a large chunk, particularly the musical performances, is in English. The music in the picture is mostly American bluegrass ("Will The Circle Be Unbroken," for titular instance), though the story is not about the music. I wasn't sure what to expect, but by the time this thing was over, I was crying my eyeballs out. I'm going to give you the whole synopsis here, so if you're like "don't tell me, I want to see it," then you should seriously stop reading right here.
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At the beginning we see a couple coping with their young daughter's cancer treatment and trying to remain upbeat about it; the film loops forward and back to show us their entire relationship from beginning to end. After the hospital scenes, the flick goes back to show us how these two get started: a shaggy bluegrass banjo picker/farmer from Ghent falls in love with a sexy tattoo artist. They have a pretty passionate love thing going on, rocking the caravan (trailer) where he lives a good bit, and next thing you know, she's pregnant. He doesn't react well at first, but then he thinks better of it and accelerates the rehab of the ramshackle house he owns and later proposes.
The pair have a beautiful little girl named Maybelle (after Maybelle Carter, musician and mother of June Carter Cash), whom they adore, and soon tattoo artist Elise starts singing with her husband Didier's bluegrass band, helping them get more gigs with her lilting voice. Things in the family and extended group of musician pals are cute and cuddly until Maybelle starts getting sick. After a course of chemo, she gets better for a while, but when a blackbird flies into the glass "terranda" (the veranda/terrace Didier has built for them) and dies, little Maybelle freaks out about it and starts asking a bunch of questions about death. At that point, the writing is on the wall. Maybelle relapses and dies in her mother's arms, with Didier sobbing nearby. It couldn't be more sad, any time a child dies it's a tear-tugger, and the actress who played this little baby sprite was simply delightful.
Things begin to really unravel for Elise and Didier, as they so often do when a child dies. You really want them to make it, because you can see how much they love one another and how affectionate they are. But the death of their child is unbearable. Maybelle's death sends Elise into a profound depression; while she believes in God, she also looks for something or someone to blame, and lashes out at Didier. Didier is a pragmatic atheist; becoming enraged by the limitations of medical science and the supposedly comforting tenets of religiosity. Elise begins looking for signs of her daughter's soul revisiting her in nature, which Didier ridicules. Elise leaves, rebranding herself "Alabama"; during a performance with their band, Didier loses it and stridently berates the audience for believing in a God he calls an "asshole," and Elise bolts from the stage. After obsessively drinking and dancing at a club, she goes to her tattoo parlor, locks herself in, and downs handfuls of prescription meds. When Didier comes looking for her, he has to break the glass door and call the medics, who rush her to the hospital. Their efforts come too late: Elise is brain dead. In the final scene, Didier calls his band mates to her hospital room, and as the nurse pulls the plug the band plays "Will The Circle Be Unbroken."
This movie wrecked me. Particularly an intense confrontation between the couple after Maybelle dies, when Didier tells Elise that she must get over it and move on. At first she accuses him of never wanting the baby in the first place, and then she says, "I should have known this would happen. Nothing good ever lasts; it is always taken away, I knew I was too happy, I let my guard down, I never should have let myself love you," or words to that effect. Her words made me burst into tears; I think this is what I often believe as well -- there is nothing good that we don't end up paying for. It is the pessimist's view, I know, and as she said it I knew how defeating it is to have this belief. Their little Maybelle was worth everything they went through. But Elise's move to take her own life belied her faith, and the sad futility of this story was just too much.
The music in the film is quite good, sung -- as I said -- in English. The performances by the actors -- Johan Heldenbergh and Veerle Baetens -- is effecting and riveting. But this is something to indulge in when you want/need a good cry and a reality check. Let us all count our blessings.
