"Bleeding Heart" is the perfect title for this well-performed yet underwhelming indie offering.

May is the sensitive yoga teacher and the bleeding heart of the film's title. She has reconnected with her long-lost half-sister Susan (Shiva),and the experience is transformative for May. She becomes obsessed with Shiva who is a "sex worker" in a relationship with her abusive pimp, Cody. The out-of-control May casts away all pretenses of the healing properties of yoga and turns vigilante in order save the helpless Shiva.

One loses any sympathy for May when she turns on her well-intentioned boyfriend Dex, gives $1,000 of their hard-earned money to Shiva, then disrupts the life of her mother in Santa Barbara.

The film lapsed into comedy when May storms into the home of "Lonely Ed," who has hired Shiva for the night. The "trick" is interrupted when May holds Lonely Ed at gunpoint, then handcuffs him to his bed.

An even more preposterous finale occurs in Santa Barbara. By the end, there is not a lot of "Namaste" left for May, who is now a gun for hire ready at moment to tell her enemy, "Go ahead! Make my day!"

I liked this film. The understated first half only helps the plot becomes more interesting, further on. Also, I was stunned to see Harry Hamlin. He was in one of the worst films ever made that included Sir Laurence Olivier: "Clash of the Titans" (1981). It was legendary bad! Anyway, the 4 primary characters in this film are quite good. I definitely recommend it.

Yoga teacher May (Jessica Biel) approaches Shiva (Zosia Mamet) with news that they share a biological mother. Shiva was a foster kid after their mother died when she was 12. Her pimp boyfriend Cody is volatile and abusive. May starts to fear for Shiva and invites her to her adoptive mother (Kate Burton). May's boyfriend Dex is angry that she gave Shiva $1000 for rent. After getting out of jail, Cody threatens Shiva but she returns to him anyways.

This moves rather slowly and deliberately. I kept waiting for a surprise twist. I have at least three in mind but this movie just kept plowing ahead. It's like watching someone willingly walk into a buzzsaw. One questions the character. The movie needs to lay out May's life more clearly and give her a greater motivation. I don't know much about writer/director Diane Bell but she shows a bit of skills. The acting is solid. Everybody shows up. This does need something more and I'm not sure what.