This is definitely one of those films that is best seen with as little prior knowledge as possible. I saw The Broken Circle Breakdown at a small cinema in Plymouth with only a vague idea that it had something to do with bluegrass music, of which I knew hardly anything. The music was actually very good but the film is far from a story about Belgian musicians playing American music. In fact, this is a fairly simple tale and, although told in a interesting way, there isn't an awful lot going on. However, what this delightful film manages to do brilliantly is throw up some big questions on topics such as love, life & belief that really get you thinking.
The past-present-future style works well to gradually unfold the details of what is happening. I found that this added very much to the tension and emotion of the film, not unlike Incendies (2010) which, although very different in subject matter, had a similar feel. Broken Circle is not as 'heavy' as Incendies and even has several smile-worthy moments to balance out the intensity.
I can see why some people might be upset by certain anti-religious aspects of the film but I thinks it's healthy for beliefs to be challenged. Similarly, some people seem to have been annoyed by the time-line jumping about but I think this actually works to great effect, especially if you don't know anything about the story beforehand. Overall, I would highly recommend Broken Circle; it's refreshing to see something genuinely different that generates real feelings for the characters and stays with you for more than ten minutes after the ending! 8/10
