Whenever we get to see actual fathers and daughters take on roles in the same property, it can be an interesting study in how an established relationship can help bring characters to life. With Bleeding Love, the dynamic between Clara and Ewan McGregor made their onscreen relationship that much stronger.
Bleeding Love is not an easy story to take in, focusing on a daughter struggling with drug and alcohol addiction and how her father’s alcoholism has colored her life. Going into it, I was personally very afraid of how I would react to seeing a father/daughter road trip movie when so much of my own relationship with my father was spent driving in cars and listening to music.
I was surprised by the amount of universal themes I found within the story—those moments when someone is singing along to the radio and you join in, the fights about your relationship and the fear of not knowing how you’re going to come out on the better end of it. All of that is woven into this father/daughter story, and it’s what carries the harder moments and makes you hope for the best for them both.
Yes, part of what makes this work is that Clara McGregor and Ewan McGregor did not have to go through the typical acting pains of trying to figure out what a father/daughter relationship would look like for them, but these characters are still completely their own, and their relationship is drastically different from that of the McGregors.
There were moments within Bleeding Love that I found myself crying through, and not because a character said something particularly moving or the plot called for it, but because any daughter who has a complicated relationship with her father can relate to what is going on between these two characters, sobriety aside.
An emotional ride to reconnecting
Trying to establish a new relationship with someone in your family is not easy. It can be tough to separate your feelings from the past with a new path forward. So much of what works with Bleeding Love comes down to little moments of a father trying to care for his daughter. He isn’t perfect and never really says that he is sorry for the past, but he is there for her when she needs him.
They still have their issues, and that is something they are going to have to work through, but getting to see these two try to strike a balance between helping each other and reestablishing a connection after years of pain is what makes Bleeding Love such a fascinating character study.
Yes, watching this when you have your own complicated feelings on your father is hard, but there is so much to love and appreciate in how Clara McGregor and Ewan McGregor bring this dynamic to life that it makes every moment between them beautiful, highlighted by a stunning backdrop of the American west with stunning sunsets and visuals bringing this emotional journey to us as the audience.
(featured image: Vertical Entertainment)
