A father daughter drama that moves and annoys you.
Ewan McGregor and his daughter Clara play a father and daughter destroyed by the pathos within their lives in “Bleeding Love.” The old man left his wife and daughter for another woman, whom he has a son with, and eventually, his first born ODs and nearly dies. And now, maybe a road trip could fix things. There’s no guarantee, because the girl doesn’t know what the trip is really for.
The moving element of the film is how the choices of one person affects another. There are strong emotions and tears, and you’re supposed to feel bad for the characters. I felt bad for the unnamed father and daughter (and they are literally labeled “Father” and “Daughter” in the credits).
But the most annoying element of the film is how this girl is kind of a bratty type. One who would make some crass and stupid choices, which nearly get her in trouble or killed. She has to bribe a waitress to let her off the hook for drinking someone else’s wine in a diner. And even one OD scene has bad people taking her money and leaving her for dead, instead of giving her an adrenaline shot. Not every movie has to be “Pulp Fiction.” I get it.
And those people are among the characters the father and daughter cross paths with en route to wherever it is they need to go to. “Lynch/Oz” did say that movies can use even the smallest pieces of inspiration from “The Wizard of Oz.” So, maybe we do need a sex worker (Vera Bulder, who co-wrote the screenplay) whose father was a doctor putting his gifts into her, or maybe we do need a young man (Jake Weary from “How to Blow Up a Pipeline”) on parole trying to go straight. And maybe we do need characters like them to inspire the main heroine to go back to her artwork, because her paintings are really inspiring.
“Bleeding Love” has to have Leona Lewis’ 2007 hit song playing. The father and daughter listened to it in their former happy years (back when she was a happy little girl and he was a devoted father), and there’s also a cover version later in the film. It really merges with the tone and consistency of the film, especially when the direction by Emma Westenberg draws the characters in those scenes.
Clara McGregor (who co-wrote the script with Bulder, and Ruby Caster) has a mixed bag of a performance. Her tears and emotions are more sincere than her character’s behaviors, which seem labored and typical. It’s a shame that I have to like Ewan McGregor’s performance more than his daughter, but he uses the right amount of range to show us his troubles. When we see these two actors, and acknowledge their relationship, we’re thinking it could be a fresh movie, almost like “Paper Moon,” when real-life father daughter Ryan and Tatum O’Neal played two strangers on a the same road trip. “Bleeding Love” has some good intentions, with better decisions than “The Son,” but it doesn’t reach as high as it should have.
The overall movie has me mixed for the right and wrong reasons. Addiction can be deadly, and people can make poor decisions as a result of that. Maybe that’s what “Bleeding Love” was going for, and maybe we do acknowledge the message. I wanted to like this movie, because of what fathers and daughters can do in leading acting roles, because Ewan McGregor is a fine, versatile actor and he can possess his talents into Clara, and because of the sincere emotions. But I’ve decided against it, because of what the screenplay chooses to have, and they can be annoying.
In Select Theaters and Streaming on VOD This Friday.