I’m a fan of road trip movies. Sometimes they are presented as comedies, dramas, or even animated films and documentaries. They are a genre that filmmakers have fallen back on for decades to tell some personal stories. Quite often they involve family members and or loved ones. That’s the case with Bleeding Love, the latest road trip movie starring Ewan McGregor and his real-life daughter Cira Mathilde McGregor.  

Father and daughter are driving in a sky blue and white GMC extended cab truck with the name of the father’s landscaping company on the side, Highland Landscaping. They have come directly from San Diego where the father (Ewan McGregor) has picked up his daughter (Cira Mathilde McGregor) from a hospital. Where he is taking her isn’t divulged until the third act, so I won’t say where here in this review. Let’s just say this trip is a bonding experience for the father/daughter pair. 

Ewan McGregor has done a lot of popular IP-type films in his career, but he’s also done his share of indie films as well. Mother Couch most recently comes to mind. This movie is a two-hander between him and his real-life daughter so it’s more personal than others, I’m sure. They have a good rapport with one another, but it shows that his daughter isn’t as experienced as an actor as her father is.

Like most road trip movies the people riding in the vehicle eventually stop to get fuel or food. When they do so they run into other people. Most of the time these people are interesting or have some significance to the story in a good way, but in this movie, these occurrences aren’t very good. The actors aren’t very memorable and the moments that happen aren’t that important except for one which I won’t say because it’s a spoiler.  It is more about the father-daughter relationship that matters in the overall context of the film.

There is an overlying plot thread from the beginning of the film that deals with past difficulties that the father had that he passed on to his daughter. These difficulties have become a major issue for his daughter and she’s dealing with them on a daily basis. Her mother who is briefly talked about has had enough of her and so she passed her off to her father to deal with. He feels resentful about not being there for her as a child, but he’s trying to help her not when she needs him the most.

A Story aspect of flashbacks is used to help tell this story. The flashbacks provide scenes of these two that riding in the truck arguing can’t provide. These are tender and heartfelt moments that show a different side to this father-daughter relationship. Flashbacks are good for that. They give a different context to a story we think we already know about but don’t. These specific flashbacks show McGregor and his daughter, as a little girl. 

The title of this movie is Bleeding Love, which is named after the Leona Lewis song of the same name. The song is very indicative of the story within the film. It talks about some of the things that transpire within this story. It’s a rare thing where song lyrics mimic a plot within said movie that the song is in but this one is one of the only ones I’ve ever seen in my lifetime. It’s not the whole movie though. There is more to this story than just that.

Bleeding Love deals with difficult subject matter but doesn’t handle it in as good of a way as other films have dealt with them in the past. The father-daughter relationship is good, but there is a clear difference in acting ability between real-life father and daughter. In time she got better as an actress. The flashbacks help give context to the story but don’t totally flesh out this relationship. The twist is where their actually going and that will have to remain a secret until you see the movie. I related to this story on some levels, but most of the movie was a bit meandering plot-wise. There was a good solid story here but it got lost in translation. 

2 ½ stars

Dan Skip Allen