Clean

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.

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.

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.

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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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"