Film review: Bleeding Love

In the mid 1990s, Ewan McGregor burst onto the scene with iconic roles in Shallow Grave and Trainspotting and was the picture of fearless, reckless youth. Now, around thirty years on, his daughter Clara is following in his acting footsteps. In Bleeding Love, the feature debut from Dutch director Emma Westenberg, they star together as an estranged father and daughter en route to rehab after a near fatal overdose. Travelling through the American Southwest, they have various pitstops and attempt to mend their fractured relationship.

With a vast desert landscape as its creative canvas, Westenberg casts the story in a glow of orange and yellow hues. While it makes for some excellent cinematography, it also emanates a warmth into the story that establishes a sentimental tone which keeps the darker elements at arm’s length. The nature of the road movie narrative keeps the plot moving at a steady pace from one situation to the next, but the script from Ruby Caster too often veers towards cliché; every interaction feels manufactured to say something deep and meaningful about the pain and despair of addiction despite treading what is already quite a well-worn path.

There are a lot of similarities between the actors’ real lives and their character counterparts; the father in this case a former addict himself, separated from his eldest’s mother with a second family to a new partner. Because of these circumstances and the connection between our leads, there’s a compelling authenticity that does shine through in the performances on screen. Most notably, it’s when inhibitions are let go and they are allowed to be vulnerable and comfortably silly in each other’s company that the film is at its best. The film’s title is taken from the hit record from Leona Lewis, and when the pop ballad comes on the car radio and the McGregor’s belt it out at the top of their lungs, it’s hard not to smile as their love becomes infectious in these moments.

Though its depiction of drug addiction is quite filtered, director Emma Westenberg has an eye for stunning compositions and Bleeding Love is a promising debut, presenting glimpses of movie magic in the genuinely tender moments between Ewan and Clara McGregor.