If the dismal reviews meted out to the new film Bleeding Love prove anything at all, it’s that parents need to think very carefully before starring in movies with their children. This film – which Peter Bradshaw called “a complete toe-curling nepo vanity project” – stars Ewan McGregor and his real-life daughter Clara. And on paper that sounds great. After all, every parent-child relationship is a complex cocktail of affection, antagonism and resentment, and that really should work gangbusters on screen. If you’re going to bring baggage to a role, it may as well be the baggage that literally defines who you are.
It is clear that, with Bleeding Love, this didn’t happen. But don’t think for a second that this is a one-off mishap signifying some grave fault on the part of the McGregors. Parent-child movies rarely work.
