Summary

• Soulful, present performances from Clara & Ewan McGregor
• Some standout scenes & an emotionally resonant climax
• Script over-relies on expository devices

When it comes to film style, I don't have a strong preference for either a heavy hand or a light touch. The sense of a clear perspective is evident in an approach that augments the intent of the material, whatever that may be. By extension, I'm just as likely to criticize a movie for being staid as for getting in its own way; Bleeding Love is in the latter category. The father-daughter drama is coated in a few too many layers of aesthetics to feel engaged by what it does have going for it.

Bleeding Love Doesn't Make The Most Of Its Potential

Dramatically, the premise has potential. The protagonist, credited as Daughter (Clara McGregor), has just survived an overdose, but is in denial about her addiction. She is on an unexpected road trip with her Father (Ewan McGregor), who she's hardly seen since childhood, when he left her and her mother. He himself is an alcoholic, now years sober, and claims to have access to a friend's place in New Mexico where she can recover and reconnect with her painting. Each has their own arc to travel on top of their relationship, and new details surface to complicate all three.

There's also the extratextual draw of the two stars being real-life father and daughter, always a point of intrigue. But, in this case, it doesn't really help what's on-screen. The development of their relationship is the least engaging of the three storylines, in part because I never really believed their estrangement. The energy of a genuine bond that can peak through in such castings isn't entirely to blame, but it would've been better suited to a different movie than the one they were trying to make.

The performances themselves are good, but it takes a little time to notice. Script-wise, the early scenes are plagued by transparent devices to extract information, and encounters with characters that feel almost condescendingly quirky compared to the city-folk leads. It never feels as if Daughter and Father have dropped into independent lives, but like they've encountered people who have been waiting along the road of their journey to unleash their oddness and push the two closer together.

Visual Touches Get In The Way Of Clara & Ewan McGregor's Performances

But one standout scene is a bright spot

Visually, the film is very indie-coded, punctuated by many too-close shots of Daughter's disaffected expressions that are filmed with a heavy dose of handheld shake and lens flare. If this is meant to create a compelling contrast to the more solid two-shots, it only lends the movie a too-muchness that pushed me away from the acting. This is actually underlined by the occasional slips into Daughter's memories, which feature heightened versions of similar stylistic touches and succeed in complementing the main action, leaving me wishing this approach had been deployed more sparingly.

It never feels as if Daughter and Father have dropped into independent lives, but like they've encountered people who have been waiting along the road of their journey to unleash their oddness and push the two closer together.

My engagement started to pick up when, having finished laying the groundwork, Bleeding Love gives the McGregors some room to play. A motel-set confrontation that tests their fragile reconnection lets the full truth Ewan is playing peek out. It's some soulful, vulnerable work. Daughter gets jabbed in her childhood insecurities after having finally let her guard down, and Clara plays the wounding well. Their performances facilitate more emotionally satisfying climaxes for their characters than I could have anticipated during the movie's first hour or so.

This doesn't salvage the viewing experience so much as lend it some redeeming qualities. Bleeding Love remains under-written and over-directed, unable to fully justify the time it asks for. If you're wanting to see Ewan McGregor do some quality acting, there are plenty of more rewarding options.

Bleeding Love is available in select theaters and on-demand.