Broken Circle Breakdown – 5

Expecting an Oscar-worthy, country-music-tinged dose of European realism, I found myself watching a 7-year-old girl die of cancer, her father lose his mind and her mother commit suicide. Where was the redeeming art? Despite their longing looks, there was a strange lack of chemistry between the lovers, and the director constantly bounced back-and-forth between the past and present to artificially manufacture some depth that wasn’t there. By movie’s end, instead of the story’s coming together, it had shot off in three or four different directions and thudded off the rails. [Smoking – 2]