Director: Emma Westenberg
Writers: Vera Bulder, Ruby Caster, Elle Malan
Stars: Ewan McGregor, Clara McGregor, Jake Weary
Synopsis: A father takes his estranged daughter on a road trip in an effort to get her out of trouble. Along the way they meet all types of strangers, as their strained relationship is put to the test.
Emma Westenberg’s New Mexico set drama Bleeding Love is, at times, too raw to not feel that it is a deeply personal story for Clara McGregor and her father Ewan McGregor. Both actors have spoken openly about their issues with addiction. Ewan became an alcoholic after starring as Renton in Trainspotting in 1996. Clara was heavily medicated for anxiety disorders. Clara publicly denounced her father for divorcing her mother and starting a new family with a younger actor. The issues of abandonment, addiction, and resentment fuel Turbo’s (or Daughter – Clara McGregor) deep distrust of her father. She almost died of an overdose earlier in the day when Father (Ewan McGregor) convinces her to go from San Diego to Santa Fe to meet a man who might be interested in exhibiting her art.
The screenwriters, including Ruby Caster, Vera Bulder, Elle Malan, and Clara McGregor waste no time setting up the fractured dynamics between Daughter and Father. Daughter is listening to “I’m Yer Dad,” by Grlwood and ignoring every effort Father is making to communicate with her. She stares out the window, sickly and sweaty. She makes Father pull over so she can pee and then runs off into the desert. Where she was planning to escape to is irrelevant. There is nothing for miles. She just doesn’t want to be with her father.
The opening circles back to Ewan McGregor’s breakout role as Renton in Trainspotting. One thing Renton did a lot of in that film was running. Here, as a man playing someone in his late forties, he is chasing after his daughter – aged twenty. It is a reminder that there is a generation who saw Renton and his escapades as something almost cool before it lurched into inevitable tragedy. The question the film asks is if Daughter, who is now faster than Father, is going to end up a statistic to drug abuse. And just how much of her predilection for addictive behavior came directly from the alcoholic man who walked out on her when she was a child?
Bleeding Love has the gritty realism of someone hitting rock bottom and trying to ignore the fact that they have. But it also has a hazy fairy tale quality. From the flashbacks to young Turbo (Devyn McDowell) and the perceived fun that a child has with a reckless parent, to the odd assortment of people Father and Daughter meet on the road. Some are magical helpers, and some are big bad wolves. Westenberg’s flashbacks have a distinct Florida Project feel.
Father has rebuilt his life via AA and is doing everything he can to help daughter rebuild hers. Yet, daughter has no reason to trust him. Why should she? For his part, Father has to do more than say sorry; he has to prove he does love the child he abandoned. No easy task because a ‘mea culpa’ doesn’t suffice when he has been gone for her formative years. He can be as good humored and concerned as he likes in Daughter’s eyes – but nothing fixes the fact he now has a new family with a son who he reads bedtime stories to. Something that she didn’t get in her chaotic childhood.
Westenberg uses New Mexico to her advantage. Christopher Ripley’s cinematography captures the beauty and the strangeness of the state. Deserts, dive bars, strip malls, abandoned spaces, bizarre themed motels, and collectives made by people living on the fringe of society. A busted tire means Father and Daughter are picked up by a gun-toting astrologist tow-truck driver. Elsie (Kim Zimmer) takes her to her found and actual family of generous people living mostly off grid. Daughter meets Kip (Jake Weary, who in real life is Kim Zimmer’s son) who is dressed as a party clown and tries to seduce him to get booze and drugs. The hapless guy is half smitten by Daughter, but also intimidated. He doesn’t realize she’s underage and is ill prepared for the blowback he gets from Father.
A gift of a pumpkin gets handed on to a truck stop sex worker, Tommy (Vera Bulder) who helps when Daughter is bitten by a spider on the side of the road. In a glitter filled moment, Father and Daughter watch Tommy perform in the headlights. Tommy is going to get out of town and be a playwright and actor – she’s headed for New York City and the boulevard of broken dreams. Maybe Daughter can provide her art for the background sets to her plays? Maybe Tommy will make it… maybe Father and Daughter will too.
Another encounter which happens after Daughter realizes that Father is not taking her to meet a gallery owner, but instead is driving her to rehab is with a feral drug addict and his partner (Travis Hammer and Eve Kozikowski). Eli and Kentucky fill her full of dangerous drugs and dump her on the road. Father desperately searches for her in bars. While Daughter spins out of control in one scene the cross fade has a bartender putting a shot of liquor in front of Father. Is it possible they will both be overcome by their vices?
Music is the one point where the good memories exist for Father and Daughter. They joyously sing Leona Lewis’ ‘Bleeding Love’ (which doubles as the title of the film, which was originally called You Sing Loud, I Sing Louder). ‘Seabird’ by the Alessi Brothers is another key work. Ewan McGregor is not only a distinguished dramatic and comedic talent – he is also a well-known song and dance man. The connection Father and Daughter through music is essential. It’s unfiltered joy and pain.
Clara McGregor is a captivating screen presence and her natural chemistry with Ewan is palpable. The script takes decided and quite funny digs at Ewan – the presumption that Father and Daughter are actually a couple by many characters is quite pointed. Bleeding Love is obviously fiction – but the elements of emotional truth will resonate with many fathers and daughters. People have to take responsibility for their lives and the damage they caused and are causing.
Eventually Father has to give Daughter the keys to her own life – a decision which is built out of a tenuous trust on both their behalf. Father admits the damage he has done: “Things start to slip away. I was acting like a child, but I had a child,” he says in an impromptu AA meeting. He is speaking directly to his daughter. Daughter has to admit that she is indeed an addict, and that she can’t stop anytime she likes.
Bleeding Love is an accomplished first feature. There are moments where it can be a bit heavy handed with the metaphors, and like its protagonists it is not without flaws. However, it is ultimately a work about redemption and trust. “You are like me. But better. I love you more,” is inscribed in Father’s diary which he gives to Daughter. A road trip across New Mexico and the space trail with added Roswell weirdness. A fairy tale. An extended apology. An act of forgiveness. Bleeding Love is a calling card for both Clara McGregor and Emma Westenberg.
