User reviews

Clean marks Maggie Cheung and her ex-husband Olivier Assayas's 1st project after the divorce.

As i personally unable to catch Irma Vep, the French vampire drama which both previously worked together, i am unable to say how well Maggie Cheung has acted in French, but seriously, i am really impressed by Cheung's performance in her 2nd French film. Playing the role of Emily Wang, a rock singer's husband, Maggie presented herself in fluent English, French and Cantonese, her native language. When Emily was arrested for possession of drugs after her husband died of overdose of heroin, she was imprisoned for 6 months. After her release from the prison, she promised her father-in-law (Nick Nolte) that she would start her life clean, so as to get back her son. During this period, she worked in a Chinese restaurant as a waitress, and at the same time, she wants to settled down with a proper job, which was none other but related to rock music.

Clean focuses on Emily's journey to start life anew, with some scene where her father-in-law is helping her to get back to life, by convincing her son, Jay, to go back to his mum. From the film, we could see the journey Emily has been through, right from the help given by her friends, how she was treated in the restaurant, to the reunion with her son. Maggie Cheung has proved the fim critics that being an Asian female movie star, she could also acted well in this multi-nation production which gains her an Cannes. Nick Nolte, on the other hand, helps to enhance the film with his role of the forgiving father-in-law, who was there to help his daughter-in-law to get back her son, rather than blaming her for his son's death.

It was quite sometime for the Asian audiences to see Maggie Cheung as the main actress in a movie after Zhang Yimou's Hero, which was seen as a failure in Asia. While Wong Kar Wai uses Maggie as Tony Leung Chiu Wai's memory in 2046, where she barely appears for less than 10 seconds in the whole film, Assayas fully enhanced Maggie's potential in Clean, which is a delight to Maggie's fans.

Also, Maggie Cheung performed the theme song for Clean for the first time, which also thrills and surprises her fans. Unlike Madonna and Jennifer Lopez, who are both singer and actress, Maggie Cheung has never recorded an album before, as she's not a professional singer. But with the new try in Clean, not only we could get a chance to see her impressive performance, but also judge on her vocal in the 2 songs performed by her in Clean. By acting and singing at the same time in Clean, Maggie Cheung has not let her fans down.

To get the full, globe-trotting flavor of "Clean," one need simply note that Emily Wang is a Chinese immigrant living in Paris with her British rock star boyfriend, and that their child is being raised by the young man's parents in Vancouver, Canada. All I can say is that "Babel" clearly has nothing on this film when it comes to international story lines spanning widely varying cultures and time zones.

Though a French film, "Clean" actually begins in the English-speaking section of Canada where Emily and her husband, Lee Hauser, both heroin addicts, are desperately attempting to jumpstart Hauser's fading music career. The couple seems to be patterned somewhat after John Lennon and Yoko Ono, since everyone around them seems to think that Emily's undue influence on him is bringing him down both personally and professionally. When Hauser dies of a drug overdose, Emily - who earned some renown of her own as a music show hostess on an MTV-style interview show on French TV a decade or so back - is arrested for heroin possession and sentenced to six months in prison. Upon her release, she returns to Paris, agreeing not to have any contact with her son until she can kick her drug habit and make a decent life for herself.

As a cautionary tale about drug addiction in the music business, "Clean" doesn't show us anything we haven't already seen in countless films (and VH-1 specials) on this very same subject before. Yet, although the movie is a bit too scattered in its focus at times, when it is zeroing in on the things that really matter - Emily's attempts at overcoming her addiction and her efforts at forging a meaningful relationship with her young son - it is poignant, profound and deeply touching. The movie is blessed with a pair of outstanding performances by Maggie Cheung as Emily and Nick Nolte as Hauser's father, a kindhearted soul who believes in forgiveness and who offers a helping hand to a woman whose life, despite all her best efforts, is constantly teetering on the edge of disaster. Their scenes together, as the two characters reveal their fears, insecurities and even tentative hopes to one another, are both spellbinding and breathtaking, and show us what fine movie acting is really all about.

So what does it take to win at the Cannes Film Festival? Well, Maggie Cheung pulled out all the stops for her win in 2004 in a moving film directed by her ex-husband Olivier Assayas.

Emily Wang (Maggie Cheung), a junkie ex-VJ, struggles in life after her husband, a famed yet ageing rocker whose career is in decline, dies after a heroin overdose on the drugs she had bought him. After serving six months in jail for possession, she finds her son, Jay (James Dennis) is put into the care of her parents in law, Albrecht (Nick Nolte) and Rosemary (Martha Henry). Knowing that the only way to see her son again is to clean herself up, Emily moves to Paris to rebuild her life, seeking help from long forgotten contacts. Meanwhile Albrecht begins to have a change in heart when he realises that Rosemary is dying.

Maggie Cheung's performance isn't easy to match with superlatives. Mastering dialogue in Cantonese, English and French, as well as singing the title track - she, unlike many HK actors, hasn't launched a singing career - it feels as much an honest, raw portrayal of Emily's character and her struggles to deal with the twists presented to her. Whilst Cheung and Assayas may have split amicably years before, I can't help but feel that their own history must have played a part in the making of this film, and if so, they used it well for the benefit of the film. Which is just as well, as I felt the overall script wasn't as impactful as it could be, particularly given Cheung's performance.

Nick Nolte's role is fairly limited. It's strange seeing him now as a grandfather, but he does it well - will we see a change in direction from him? This is a good film, and we will look back on it one day in an awards ceremony and say this is the one movie that exemplifies all of Maggie Cheung's achievements in one film.

Saw Clean today at the 2004 Toronto International Film Festival, starring Maggie Cheung and Nick Nolte. Cheung and director/screenwriter Olivier Assayas were present to introduce the movie and showed up afterwards for a Q&A session. Clean stars Cheung as the drug-addicted wife of a once-good rock musician who, after a tragedy, must clean herself up and set her life back on track to regain custody of her son from his grandparents (played by Nick Nolte and Martha Henry). Don McKellar also makes an appearance early in the film as a business associate of Cheung's husband. The movie moves between Hamilton (!), Vancouver, Paris, and London as Cheung struggles to redefine her life. Clean was a great movie, and it's easy to see how Maggie Cheung picked up the best actress award at Cannes this year. And Assayas even made a dingy, industrial shoreline in Hamilton appear as a beautiful backdrop to one scene of Cheung taking drugs to escape the conflict in her life.

Some tidbits from the Q&A:

• The script was written for Maggie Cheung by the director, Olivier Assayas. The two had worked together previously on Irma Vep, and Assayas wanted to find a story that would fit Cheung, but it took several years.

• Cheung's character in the movie is much like her real-life self, in that it is a character between cultures, with roots in many countries.

• Maggie Cheung likes singing, which influenced the storyline.

• Nick Nolte was not the first choice to play the grandfather; another actor had been selected, but shortly before shooting, his doctor called to say that he was ill and could not participate in the movie, and in fact died not long afterwards. When recasting, Assayas told his casting director that he wanted someone like Nick Nolte for the role, and it was suggested that he just contact Nolte, who quickly accepted.

• Assayas couldn't believe that Nolte was actually in the movie until he saw him in front of the camera.

• When casting in Canada, the first set of tapes sent to Assayas for each of the characters were all wrong, with the exception of the one for the grandmother, which was Martha Henry. Assayas said she was the ideal choice for the role.

• Many people who make appearances in the movie are real-life musicians, which lends an air of verisimilitude to the movie. Included are Tricky and David Roback. Cheung's husband in the movie is also a musician, and is currently working with Nick Cave.

• When casting Cheung's son in the movie, Assayas said that he must have seen every Eurasian child in North America. :-) He eventually picked a boy with no previous acting experience, because he felt child actors are generally spoiled and lack spontaneity.

• When asked about her realistic portrayal of a recovering drug addict, Cheung mentioned that it is not based on her own experiences, but both she and Assayas have had friends in various stages of recovery, some entering it, some in it, and some coming out of it.

• Assayas said he didn't want to sentimentalize the problem, and that he wanted to be more balanced and not have anyone purely good or purely bad.

• He was a bit nervous showing the movie in Toronto since much of it was shot here or in the area, and that the audience could easily compare it to the real-life version (in fact, one shot that is supposedly in Hamilton is actually on Bathurst Street in Toronto).

• For the festival, he is staying in the same hotel in which he stayed while filming the movie, which he found weird. :-)

The former successful forty-two years old rock star Lee Hauser (James Johnston) is decadent and his friends blame his girlfriend Emily Wang (Maggie Cheung) for the fall in his career due to excessive use of drugs. Their son Jay (James Dennis) is raised by his grandparents Albrecht Hauser (Nick Nolte) and Rosemary Hauser (Martha Henry) in Vancouver. When Lee dies of overdose in a motel room, Emily is sentenced to six months in jail. She moves to Paris where she unsuccessfully struggles to keep clean. When she decides to retrieve the guard of he son, she is supported by her father-in-law and finds the necessary strength to rebuild her life.

"Clean" is a heavy drama of second chance in life with great performances of Maggie Cheung and the boy James Dennis, who probably has the strongest lines with the rejection to his mother. Nick Nolte performs an experienced nice man that believes in forgiveness, but he, actor, seems to be tired. The inconclusive end makes the optimistic viewer like me believes in a final redemption of Emily, but it is open to different interpretations. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Clean"

Emily Wang (Maggie Cheung) is in Toronto with her rocker boyfriend Lee. They're both drug addicts and have a son together. Everybody blames her for his drug addiction. Lee dies of heroin overdose. She gets caught for possession. After getting out of jail, Lee's father Albrecht Hauser (Nick Nolte) visits her. She agrees not to visit her son Jay who is living with Albrecht in Vancouver. In Paris, she tries to stay clean while waitressing but she has become addicted to methadone.

It's interesting to see Maggie speak English and French. She seems capable. Her acting is fine but there is a grittier level that she doesn't quite get to. The indie style and her acting don't quite drop down into the gutter. Her desperation isn't visceral enough. Nick Nolte is doing his gruff acting. The movie starts in Toronto. Although I love Metric, it would be more cinematic to start in someplace more glamorous like New York. This is definitely the best non-Chinese dramatic acting that I've seen from Maggie. I kept expecting this to go to a much darker place.

Wonderful characters and beautiful images, on a plot that supports them well, without grabbing too much attention. Assayas shows great skill in timing and in choosing when to pursue and when to cut off a scene, delivering the smoothest storytelling and the most delicate way to bring characters to life. Balibar, Dalle and Tricky provide a rich, clever, contrasting universe where Cheung's brilliant performance and Notle's strong presence can shine. If a bit over-dramatic at times, the use of music is rather moving: no formal perfection, no bland, formatted entertainment, but the sound of real people pouring their life in their songs. Subtlety, sensitivity and humanity in filming life's meanderings make this movie a real treat. 9/10

No doubt that this is a professionally made movie but the story is truly lacking at times. The getting clean and finding conciliation with her son seem like two totally different things in the movie, even though they are obviously connected to each other. It's one of the reasons why I regard this as a disjointed picture.

Other reasons are that not all story lines seems that relevant in the movie movie and not all get wrapped up properly. Some characters in the long run are pretty redundant ones. It makes the movie move slower than really necessary at times. The movie is already quite short now but in my opinion it could and perhaps also should had been even 10-20 minutes shorter.

You can say a lot of things about this movie but you can't accuse it of not being original. Despite not having a so original story, the movie at all times keeps a realistic and original approach of things. I think this really says something about the directing qualities of Olivier Assayas.

The movie gets entirely carried by Maggie Cheung. She acts in 3 totally different languages for a large part in this movie. You have got to respect that! Which other actor can say he or she is capable of doing that? But no, it wasn't always a character I could sympathize with, since she is still a kind of offbeat person. It still was the movie that introduced the western world to Maggie Cheung. Nick Nolte also of course plays one fine role, though his role is perhaps a bit more limited than you would expect. And man, how heavy was he on the bottle during the filming off this movie? At times his hands were shaking and he was touching his head. Something tells me this wasn't acting or part of his character. Nolte is of course notorious for his drinking problems. The Nick Nolte character and the Maggie Cheung character also don't really feel connected in this movie. as if they were making two completely different pictures at the time on their own. It just doesn't feel right, not even when they're together in the same scene. It feels like two captain on one ship, with each of them taking their own course.

See it's for its fine directing but don't expect to be blown away by a terribly sad or powerful dramatic story.

6/10

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Against a landscape of industrial detritus, autumnal junkyards and chemical cenotaphs, Maggie Chung implodes. She doesn't lose it with decorous resignation, as she did in familiar masterpieces by Wong Kar-Wai and Stanley Kwan. Instead, she insults and jostles her way to the bottom, ditching the reticence that constrained her in nearly every other film she's made.

Seldom heard until now, her clipped British English is underscored at first by breakneck speech-rhythms, cadences en route to a crackup: these telegraph the destructive impatience of her character. A procession of gas stations, wheezing old cars and stained Formica desks follows, terminating in contracts signed with descending water-spray scribbles. The Eno-dependent score draws on _Another Green World_, the visuals, _Paris, Texas_.

Her heroin/death crash gives way to temporary calm, which is jostled into verbal violence again after her character moves to Paris. That setting is where her character seems most natural and believable: berating and brushing away friends in a culture peculiarly disposed to viewing argumentativeness as courage and social dysfunction as passion.

Chung's addict isn't always N.A.-accurate, but her delineation of the role she was asked to play borders on virtuosic. Much as one loves seeing Chung embody the perfect suffering torch-song icon in films like Center Stage and In the Mood for Love, it is thrilling to hear her claim other languages, styles and emotional idioms as her own. Even her singing is antithetical to the voice of her earlier characters. And it isn't an accident that she is cast against a restrained Nick Nolte, who portrayed a raging drunk so affectingly in _Affliction_, and a complacent bohemian Béatrice Dalle, whose superficially flawed gap-toothed beauty and eccentric portrayals have provided temporary pleasure in so many dystopian films.

Despite Clean's hoary conceit -- heroin weaning as spiritual redemption -- the cinematography is beautiful and evocative, particularly the landscape pans. As in Drugstore Cowboy, one feels the drugs and the music to be an arbitrary pretext for a film that is actually about something else.

The music references are embarrassing. Particularly wince-making are repeated references to Mazzy Star, since that's who Chung's character is intended to resemble (could the director have been more obvious?). The model isn't surprising, given Chung's orientation: One way to get a convincing performance out of a non-singer is to develop a character voice -- in this case, something deadpan and breathy, with almost no vibrato. Even so, the director's lack of finesse is revealed insofar as Mazzy Star's name is mentioned at all -- let alone repeated and underlined by two different characters.

Chung plays a vintage failed rock singer well in the San Francisco studio, with her careless beaten unbranded leather, AKG K-240 headphones, Neumann TLM-103 caged mike, pop filter (though she doesn't need one) and groggy swaying motion. Even so, it's Chung's mastery of her character's pacing that seems most musical, not the voice she musters or the blues dirge she happens to sing. One wonders what Nicholas Roeg would have to say about her, um, performance.

As always with Chung, the emotional repression of the character is what makes her breakdown so affecting. In work that is elegiac, one always wants the tears to come slowly: talking oneself out of them, bracing oneself, is what forces emotion to surface in the end.

This movie is badly written and well acted, which is a shame because you're interested in the characters right away, and the movie begins as though it's going to be a different sort of drug redemption film, one that might just skate the line between glorification and demonization. Instead, the script loses it's emotional way and falls fast into a four star disappointment. Terrible follow-through. Both maggie cheung and nick nolte provide a fair- enough effort, yet their relationship never picks up any developmental speed. The other characters are quasi-interesting, but probably because we never really find out anything about them. Plus, the little boy didn't get the direction he needed, because he sounds like he's reading lines, to the point that you're embarrassed for the filmmakers that they even attempted the hook, line and cute-kid sinker. And finally, the music should be more than just set dressing in a story so critically dependent on rock credibility. Though i'd admit that there were a couple interesting sequences, i wouldn't recommend a film this weak to anyone. The script doesn't nearly get redeemed by any particular virtue of filmmaking.

Just saw this on Sundance Channel and was quietly but firmly impressed. ALL performances were top notch, yes. even the little boy's. Nick Nolte is the damned finest actor of his generation probably and Miss Cheung is terrific in her French and English speaking role. I admit to some ignorance of her career, but from my limited perspective, seeing her performances botched by inscrutable kung fu editing and bad subtitling, it was almost a revelation to see her subdued and so movingly...human. (Same to be said for her contemporary Michelle Yeoh, by the way, in her non-Hong Kong stuff.) I'm a sucker for style and this film has some. Points for incidental 70's Brian Eno music snippets.

I'm not a recovery expert and thusly do not subscribe to strict 12 step voodoo dogma, so I believed this character.

Assayas wrote this hyperactive and over-ambitious film expressly for his ex-wife, Hong Kong mega-star Maggie Cheung. She plays Emily, a "rock widow." That's what she becomes in the opening scene when her musician main squeeze (James Johnson) OD's near a Canadian steel mill. Emily's reaction is to get high on the same drugs and sit all night in an old American car staring at the ruined landscape while we listen to big sweeping passages from Brian Eno.

Six months later Emily gets out of prison for possession and seeks out her in-laws in Vancouver, who've been raising a little boy she had with the late rock star. The grandpa is Nick Nolte. Chastened by her boyfriend's death and a jail term, she now wants to start a new life and be allowed to take over the care of her son. In a painful effort to recreate herself, she opts for Paris because London has "too many memories." Only it's "trop de souvenirs" now, because the multilingual Cheung has switched necessarily to French. 'Clean' is in a mixture of French and English like Assayas' previous film 'demonlover'. This time a dash of Cantonese Chinese is added in when Emily waitresses in a big restaurant for a while in Paris before an interview with the Printemps chain, as a result of which -- somewhat improbably -- she is hired as the manager of a new store "for active women." Eventually she gets to see Nolte and little Jay (James Dennis), who both come over to Paris from London where they've gone from Vancouver (no shortage of travel in 'Clean') to get tests and treatments for grandma (Martha Henry).

During the movie's most touching scene, in the Vincennes Zoo with the boy -- who's long ago been turned against her by the grandma -- Emily manages a heart-to-heart chat that convinces her son she's not why his dad died -- and might deserve to be his full-time mom. As the movie ends she's gathered the courage to return to North America and record a song in a San Francisco studio (one last move in the director's endless locale-shifting game). Several brief scenes between Nolte and Cheung that show mutual empathy ("I believe in forgiveness," he tells her) also have some emotional authenticity.

The Canadian opening has a kind of gritty trashiness. The conflicts between Emily and her husband and music people are confusing and disturbing; they're not exposition. But then they are: they show a lifestyle about to implode. Brian Eno's music provides a desolate background for the already bluntly metaphorical dark satanic mills (Assayas may mean the stark steel foundry to stand for the music industry) and for the ugly quarrel between Emily and her husband. The shot of the car at dawn is a memorable and poetic image of the end of a lifestyle. The director has talent: he just needs to channel it better.

As a depiction of the recovery process this is all smoke and mirrors. Most of what goes on in rebuilding a life is interior and that's hard to show in a film. "Fake it till you make it" is an important recovery slogan describing the early 12-step process: but if an actress accurately reproduces the effect of "faking it" the result is necessarily going to look chilly and artificial. Finally Maggie Cheung may be, at least in this her European/western persona, too composed and self-possessed a person to illustrate the sufferings of drug rehabilitation, though the absence of heavy histrionics is a plus. Another traditional rule of recovery is not to make any major changes in the first year -- a rule Emily frantically violates. Obviously, one abstains. But she is depicted going through methadone to illegally acquired painkillers to marijuana to being drug-free. The sense of fits and starts is valid, but the implication of such a progression's being part of successful recovery is a questionable one. Even advocates of the film admit that the interwoven scenes of Emily with crypto-lesbian bohemian characters and the unruly behavior of these women among themselves are nothing but a confusing distraction. Self-restraint seems a quality unknown to this director.

Emily has but one purpose: to remake herself -- to become "clean" -- so that she may have her little boy back. That is so simple, and it's all that keeps her going. But although this film deals with more down-to-earth material than 'demonlover', it handles it in too fragmented and detached a manner. Assayas seems to like chaos. Perhaps he's a little too distracted by the complexities in the life of a woman who after all has become very focused. Though this may not be the great performance some think, Cheung deserves credit for keeping at least some sense of consistency through the dizzying background shifts.

'Clean' was warmly received in France with prizes at Cannes and critical acclaim afterward in 2004, though the whole process may owe more to Assayas' and Cheung's enthusiastic fan base than to ultimate merit. 'demonlover' did well with fans too (though not so well with critics in France or the US) despite the fact that it self-destructs halfway through. American aficionados have been panting to see 'Clean' but Variety's David Rooney had predicted that only "a marginal release" for 'Clean' was likely. The movie opened in New York April 28, 2006, 18 months after the Paris opening.

I think the movie has been made with a good intention, however it is far from reality. The reason why i am stating so boldly is, i myself counsel at a halfway house, interact with them and constantly try to figure out what works for them to overcome. The role played by Maggie was Worthy watching, what i meant by commenting 'far from reality' is the movie shows a high profile couple addicted to heroin. Maggie's decision to give up drugs to get back her son Jay was clearly not portrayed well. If giving up drugs was so easy, i don't think anybody would like to be hooked on to it. A strong motivation surely helps, however cannot be the only factor for somebody to recover from addiction. The movie shows as though all her friends are concerned with her addiction and want her to get back to normal life, in real life, co-addicts are the greatest friends of addicts. A similar hangout place or a simple stress can trigger an addict to relapse, Maggie seems to miraculously win over everything in no time.

I have just a few «linguistic» comments on this halfhearted film. How is it that the rock star Lee Hauser speaks with a sharp British accent while his parents have a regular «Canadian accent»? That oddity is really, well, odd... Also, when Emily returns to Paris, she uses Parisian 'argot' (slang), words like «dégage» (scram), and with a light French accent at that!That accent and that particular kind of slang sounds odd for an English-speaking and English-educated girl who says that she prefers London to anywhere else. The manners of speech in that film raise questions about possible «personality disorders» underlying the character of Emily. The use of subtitles is very helpful. The French version I have seen uses subtitles for the parts in English and in Cantonese. Unfortunately, there is no subtitles for the parts spoken in French. I confess, honestly, that I was lost sometimes, in spite of the fact that my mother tongue and usual language is French! Definitively, the director experienced some troubles with the multi-language aspects of the movie. What about a crash course in languages and accents to some casting personnel?

It was my admiration of Maggie Cheung that initially lead me to "Clean" back in the day around 2004 or 2005. And while I am indeed a fan of her, a big fan, then I must say that "Clean" is not the type of movie that will appeal to everyone in the audience.

"Clean" is a rather slow-paced movie, and that can be a hindrance for some viewers, because it takes very long for director Olivier Assayas to get the story from A to B.

However, if you can overcome the slow pace, then "Clean" is a very deep and impacting movie, because it deals with some pretty heavy issues; which are drug addiction, coming clean, fighting for your family and getting your act together after a rough patch in life. These are all topics that make for an interesting drama, and that is what "Clean" turns out to be.

This is a story that is driven mostly by character development and the audience get rather swept up and caught up in the story. And for this I must applaud writer and director Olivier Assayas.

Of course, it is no secret that I did enjoy watching the talented Maggie Cheung in this role, especially because it is a role that strays quite far from what she used to do in her acting career. She was carrying the movie quite well with her performance here, and she was well assisted by Nick Nolte in this movie. Actually, Nick Nolte really put on a great performance as well here, and he was quite well-cast for this particular movie.

The music in "Clean" is rather diverse, and I bought the soundtrack for it after having seen the movie. The music ranges widely here, and it was also a nice touch to have Maggie Cheung perform songs herself.

"Clean" is not the type of movie that you can watch over and over within a short time frame. It is suitable for more than just a single viewing, for sure, but with years passing in between each viewing.

It takes a hell of a lot to keep me up past my bedtime, and it was this outstanding performance by Maggie Cheung (Jet Li's Hero, 2046) with support by Nick Nolte (Affliction, The Prince of Tides) that did it.

All you need to know about the film is in the summary. The story of a woman or man trying to battle their demons and get their life on track is as old as film itself. It is Cheung that brings the magic to the story and gives a performance that stands out from the rest. Using three languages was powerful, and certainly puts here a step above others.

Writer and director, Olivier Assayas, provided the perfect vehicle to display Cheung's ability. Cinematography by Eric Gautier (A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, The Motorcycle Diaries) was brilliant.

Cheung fans will be thrilled; others will be amazed at Nolte's ability.

A subtle, realistic portrayal of a drug addicted, rock star widow who tries to turn her life around in order to establish her long lost relationship with her young son. Film is anchored by the (atypically) radiant Cheung, keeping the unglamorous scenario grounded with spirit. All in all, not a terribly affecting piece- perhaps the impact could have been stronger given the sensitive material, but, at the same time, we have seen countless movies that indulge in these plot lines merely to exploit their tragic nature, which to writer/director Olivier Assayas credit, does not. The slow paced realism and detail throughout make this movie a no go for the more in-your-face crowd, but for an unusual character study, one may be pleasantly surprised if there are no expectations to be found.

The mental state of the character and the overall rhythm of the film are synchronized, which is a typical example of the excellent cooperation between the writer, the director and the actor. However, I always feel that it is a bit too utilitarian to deal with such a subject that implies many aspects of the drama conflict into a one-man show. There are still some details in the play that are worthy of repair and enrichment. Fortunately, Assayas used a skillful lens language to create a convincing atmosphere of telling and dispelling the flaws in some scripts.

Maggie Cheung is impressive in this film, which showcases her as a serious actor and woman of the world, as she seamlessly speaks English, French, and Cantonese (and even sings). Nick Nolte turns in a fine performance as well. Unfortunately, I found the script to this story of redemption from drugs not as strong as their acting, often wandering, and Olivier Assayas's direction to plod along. I confess that addiction movies are harder for me to enjoy to begin with. The musical performances and soundtrack for such a film could have been better showcased, which, while I suppose wasn't the point of the movie, would have made it more entertaining. I did like the cinematography and panoramic shots that Eric Gautier gave us, but wouldn't recommend this movie without reservations.

Although it seems like Nick Nolte has spent his entire career playing miserable characters - save "Hotel Rwanda" - then "Clean" justifies most of his roles. Maggie Cheung plays Emily Wang, a woman in Hamilton, Ontario, with a past of drug addiction and other life-ruining things. Following a raid, her son gets taken away from her and sent to live with his grandfather Albrecht (Nolte) in Vancouver, B.C. So, Maggie decides to restart her life in Paris. While visiting London, Albrecht takes the grandson to Paris to visit her, and then has to face a moral dilemma about whether or not keeping the boy from his mother is a good idea.

This is certainly a scathing look at drug usage. Many of the camera angles make you feel like you're sinking into her world of desperation, and you just might feel like you've been kicked in the gut. As always, Nolte does a really good job as a person living a seemingly pathetic life. So I recommend it, but not for the fainthearted.