Bleeding Love

1hr 36mins (15)

Hackneyed road movie starring Ewan McGregor and his daughter ★★

“There are echoes of Paper Moon” in this “hackneyed” road movie starring Ewan McGregor and his daughter Clara, said Kevin Maher in The Times. “Like Ryan O’Neal and daughter Tatum before them, our protagonists share a fractious energy that carries them through several desert encounters with hustlers and oddballs, as they travel from California to New Mexico on a 14-hour dash towards rehab.” The daughter is battling a substance addiction that has been aggravated by the fact that her father has ditched her mother for a younger woman. “You left me, you left us!” she shouts. “Now you’re trying to make it nice for your new wife and your new baby so she doesn’t see what a piece of shit you are.” If the setup is “ringing any bells”, it’s because the film is actually “inspired by” the private lives of the McGregors – Ewan divorced Clara’s mother, Eve Mavrakis, in 2020, and married a younger woman (actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead). Yet owing in part to a terrible script, the “relationship dynamics” simply don’t ring true; and the pair come across as “solipsistic twits”. “I guess I just didn’t really know what it meant to be a father,” Ewan says at one point. Yawn.

The film is “fairly predictable”, featuring the usual “misunderstandings and deceits, tears and arguments, flashbacks and moments of bonding”, said Jayne Nelson in Radio Times. But it doesn’t drag, thanks to “electrifying” performances by both McGregors. This “by the numbers” effort may provide a “decent showcase” for Ewan’s talents, said Alistair Harkness in The Scotsman. But Clara, who co-produced the film, “doesn’t have the chops to pull off the role. Her performance tends towards the histrionic”, ensuring that this “soft-focus look” at addiction “never really convinces”.