Clean

This film follows Emily through the drug-overdose death of her rocker husband, loss of custody of her son, and her attempts to work hard, get clean, and start a new life that will allow her to have her son back.

Directed by Olivier Assayas, Frenchman who most recently directed a short in Paris Je t'aime and directed Irma Vep.
Stars Maggie Cheung as Emily and Nick Nolte as her father-in-law Albrecht.
Released 2004. In English, Chinese and French (with subtitles).

Clean begins in Canada at a grimy music club where we first meet the heroin addicted Emily and her rocker hubby Lee. Lee soon dies of an overdose and Emily is sent to prison. She emerges from jail with a new perspective and a drive to reclaim her son, who has been living with Lee's parents for the past few years in Canada since Emily and Lee were too incompetent to care for him.

As rosy, feel-good and cheesy as this plot may sound, it is not. The film is very realistic is it follows Emily's struggles: her relapse into drug abuse, her inability to hold a job or unwillingness to behave on the job, her struggle to create music again - which is her passion. However imperfect she may be, she keeps trying to get it right. That's what's so nice about this story. It is believable.

Also, the cinema verite shooting style makes it feel all the more real and makes London, Paris and towns in Canada look all the more accessible, and less polished than we are used to seeing them in films.

Nick Nolte is a nice surprise in this picture. He plays the grandpa, who along with grandma, is raising Emily and Lee's little boy. He is a strong, practical person who very fairly sets the bar for Emily and constantly keeps the boy's well being in mind.

I liked that the film did not end on some glossy high note with mother and son riding off into the sunset. It left it on a very even keel, not dismal, but with hope that everything would be all right.

STORY: 7.5
LOOK: 8
ACTING: 8.5 (Maggie Cheung is excellent.)

I recommend renting this film.