Clean

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"

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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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

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.