by Lisa Nystrom
Worth: $11.50
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Clara McGregor, Ewan McGregor, Vera Bulder, Kim Zimmer, Travis Hammer, Jake Weary
Intro:
… a sweet and well-intentioned road movie that never quite reaches its destination.
Bleeding Love is a reflective road journey filled with the messiness of human emotion, especially when it comes to family.
While fictionalised for the screen, the story is inspired by Ewan McGregor and daughter Clara’s own relationship.
Somewhere along a New Mexico highway, a nameless father and daughter struggle to reconnect, thrown together by her battle with addiction after being estranged for years. While her father ducks away to make calls, checking in with his new wife and young son at each dusty rest stop, his daughter attempts to reconcile the man that she grew up with; this image of an emotionally present parent, and something he was never able to do for her or her mother during her own childhood.
The daughter’s judgment is initially as harsh and unforgiving as the remote road to Santa Fe, but as their bond rekindles and they switch from awkward silence to car trip karaoke (the song of choice doubling as the film’s title), we see the setting evolve from barren desert to hazy sunrises over the dreamy, open landscape.
In truth, the relationship between father and daughter does most of the heavy lifting of the film. While the story may meander through a kind of surreal hero’s journey of roadside attractions and offbeat interactions with eccentric locals, real emotional depth translates through each of the lead’s interactions.
Ewan McGregor has taken a step back to allow his daughter to shine here, and Clara does a solid job of holding her own against his performance. It’s a heartfelt story balanced with wry humour thanks to a host of zany side characters that they meet along the way, but that same intimacy that acts as the lynchpin of the plot is also its downfall. Each time the narrative is in danger of becoming too personal, it quickly veers away from hitting any nerves or exploring that darker side of the estrangement.
The end result of playing it safe and avoiding those still tender emotional bruises is a sweet and well-intentioned road movie that never quite reaches its destination.
