Movie Review: 'Broken Diamonds'

Things in movies are more than just things. If a writer or director calls attention to a specific thing, that thing gains meaning from that attention beyond its mere function. In the case of the new mental health drama, Broken Diamonds starring Ben Platt and Lola Kirke, it’s a house that takes on a great deal more meaning than being merely a place where someone lives. The house in question belonged to the main characters’ father and the added layer of meaning deepens as the story unfolds.

Broken Diamonds is the story of Scott (Ben Platt) a waiter who has just quit his job and is moving to Paris to start his life as an author. Scott has been scrimping and saving for years to make this move and he finally has just enough money to make a go of it. Unfortunately, before Scott can get on a plane and leave his troubles behind, tragedy strikes. Scott’s father has passed away unexpectedly and the impact of this news is a ripple effect throughout Scott’s life.

Scott’s father had been the main caretaker for Scott’s older sister, Cindy (Lola Kirke), who suffers from Schizophrenia. The death of their father causes Cindy to lash out and get herself thrown out of the hospital where she lives. It will be two weeks before Scott can get Cindy into a new full time hospital. That’s a problem because he’s supposed to leave for Paris in a week. Not only that but Scott’s dad has left the house in his will to both Scott and Cindy meaning that Scott has to corral his sister into signing papers for the sale of the house or prove she is not competent to make such a decision, thus allowing him to make the call for her.

That is the practical description of the plot of Broken Diamonds but the heart of the movie are a series of scenes in which Cindy tries to assert her independence and Scott tries to keep her from acting out. Cindy quickly chooses to go off of her medication and is soon hearing voices and battling Scott all the while he’s trying to manage the last few days before he changes his entire life forever by moving to a foreign country.

Naturally, a lot of family history weighs heavily on the story of Broken Diamonds. The film, directed by Peter Sattler from a screenplay by Steve Waverly, uses some flashbacks but not a lot. The brief flashbacks we see show the early bond between brother and sister that was eventually torn apart by illness. Most of the backstory of the family plays out in implication and dialogue. We hear about things that Cindy did and went through and Lola Kirke does well to show the lingering effects of her various experiences.

Lola Kirke delivers a performance in Broken Diamonds that never goes for showy or actorly moments of indulgence. Playing a schizophrenic can often lead an actor to indulge and Kirke remains smartly in check throughout Broken Diamonds. She has her flights and struggles but she’s never over the top or over-dramatic. Because of Kirke's strong and sensitive performance, Broken Diamonds joins a good trend of movies portraying mental illness fairly and honestly. See also the mental illness drama Paper Spiders from earlier in 2021 as another good example.

As for Ben Platt, in a role that serves as his leading man introduction before his expected breakthrough in the Broadway adaptation, Dear Evan Hansen, later this year, he does well to paint a picture of a little boy still living for the approval he never received from his parents. Scott's journey is about becoming an adult at an age that should have already happened. Scott is an overgrown teenager and his move to Paris is symbolic of a childish notion of adulthood. He needs to grow up and learn practicality and understand that the world doesn't revolve around him. He's not insignificant but he's part of a greater whole with Cindy, a family, a support system for both of them. For him to heal he has to choose to participate in this life.

The house which drives the action of the second act of Broken Diamonds is never directly commented upon in terms of what it means. The implication is that many traumatic events unfolded in this home, not the least of which was their father’s unexpected death. Being in the home practically forces Scott and Cindy to confront their mixed feelings regarding their father and the choices he made throughout their lives. The house stands for everything that Scott and Cindy went through as children from the dissolution of their parents’ marriage to the individual traumas each experienced, large and small.

The house is a standing monument to their father, a man with troubles of his own who did what he thought was right and failed in the myriad ways so many of us do. Every parent does their best not to inflict trauma upon their children but trauma, big and small, is inevitable. Whether it is a series of micro aggressions such as unknowingly favoring one child over another or making wrong decisions that seemed right in the moment.

No parent is perfect and Scott and Cindy’s father certainly wasn’t perfect. The house, his monument, thus serves the role of representing him as a burden, as a memory, as the metaphorical conception of ‘home’ as a concept. It carries the representation of everything Scott and Cindy went through as children and is now being revisited upon them. The fate of the house is not a major source of drama, Cindy doesn’t appear to care all that much about selling it, but the meaning is there nonetheless and is well implied.

The title Broken Diamonds is a rather on the nose conception. It means that even something hard can break. No matter the strength or rigidity of a thing, cracks can appear, breaks are part of life. It’s a solid metaphor for Scott and Cindy’s bond. What was once solid and unbreakable, broke. This is the story of how that strong bond broke and how it may or may not be fully repaired and it’s quite a lovely story.

Broken Diamonds opens in limited theatrical release and for on-demand streaming rental on Friday, July 23rd, 2021.