Bleeding Love (15)

Heartfelt and sincere, Bleeding Love is a father-daughter story about love, lies and family trauma starring a real father-daughter duo.

The dramatic duet opens with the nameless father (Ewan McGregor) already behind the wheel of his pickup truck with his nameless, angrily sullen daughter (Clara McGregor) riding shotgun. They’re on a highway headed toward Santa Fe, New Mexico, though it soon becomes evident that they’re also on the road to reconciliation — that byway many indie-film families travel in order to heal.

Their relationship is strained, to say the least, due to the father being absent for the majority of his daughter’s life, and what’s spurred him to try and reconnect is the discovery that she’s recently suffered a drug overdose. A recovering addict himself, there are multiple points in the film where it’s obvious that he feels like he’s staring at a mirror, seeing someone he holds incredibly dear go through almost the exact same things he once did. All he wants is for his daughter to be better than him, to do anything but live the life he did. It’s incredibly moving, because that feeling is so universal.