There are some really sad Bluegrass songs out there, but none of them come anywhere close to the morose depths of The Broken Circle Breakdown. Let's just say that it starts with the realization that Elisa (Veerle Baetens) and Didier's (Johan Heldenbergh) 6-year-old daughter (Nell Cattrysse) has cancer, and it all goes downhill pretty quickly from there. The Broken Circle Breakdown thankfully takes a cue from Blue Valentine and offsets the horribleness of the present with flashbacks to the idyllic happiness of the recent past. If we were to reorganize the film into linear form, it would start with Elisa and Didier's first meeting. Elisa tries to convince Didier to get a tattoo while Didier tries to convince Elisa of the significance of American Bluegrass music. By the end of the conversation, Didier's enthusiasm wins Elisa over. It is not long before Elisa is fronting Didier's Bluegrass band... They are hopelessly in love.