Bleeding Love (2024)

User Review

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  ScreenZealots

  2 / 10

  “Bleeding Love” feels a little to “student filmy” in its portrayal of addiction and family dynamics, which makes it the trying kind of indie that’s not all that enjoyable to watch. Director Emma Westenberg makes some rookie mistakes in her road trip feature, and these missteps unfortunately dominate the parts that actually work well.
  
  A father (Ewan McGregor) takes his estranged adult daughter (Clara McGregor) on an impromptu road trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico in an effort to get her out of trouble. While en route to their destination, the pair encounter a menagerie of eccentric strangers that seem to spark a tiny bit of connection in their seriously fractured relationship. Things get rocky when she discovers the trip is a ruse to check her into a rehab facility after a near-fatal drug overdose, which forces the father and daughter to confront difficult issues from their past.
  
  The film is a series of exhausted, trite, strained relationship, addiction, and reconnection tropes that are screaming with conventionality (They attend a group meeting! They sing along in the car! They break the rules! They finally hug it out!).
  
  Despite genuine performances from the real-life father/daughter duo stars, at the film’s core is a clunky script and uninteresting story with equally uninteresting characters. As a result, nothing made me care at all about the narrative nor their character arcs.
  
  “Bleeding Love” struggles mightily because the story isn’t hearty enough. There’s too much unnecessary filler and ultimately forgettable elements that never find a place where they fit.
  
  By: Louisa Moore / SCREEN ZEALOTS

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