Clean (2004)
Average Rating: 6.6/10
Reviews Counted: 64
Fresh: 46 | Rotten: 18
In one of her best roles, Cheung gives a believable and arresting performance as a recovering addict.
Average Rating: 6.2/10
Critic Reviews: 29
Fresh: 20 | Rotten: 9
In one of her best roles, Cheung gives a believable and arresting performance as a recovering addict.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.2/5
User Ratings: 14,515
My Rating
Movie Info
A woman throws herself into a last-ditch struggle to conquer her demons in this gritty drama from director Olivier Assayas. Lee Hauser (James Johnston) is a faded rock star who lives with his wife, Emily Wang (Maggie Cheung), the former host of a European music video show, in a small town in Western Canada. Both Lee and Emily have been battling drug addiction for years, and when Lee finally dies of an OD, Emily finds herself charged with possession of heroin and ends up spending six months in
Cast
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Maggie Cheung
Emily Wang -
Nick Nolte
Albrecht Hauser -
Beatrice Dalle
Elena -
Jeanne Balibar
Irene Paolini -
Don McKellar
Vernon -
Martha Henry
Rosemary Hauser -
James Johnston
Lee Hauser -
James Dennis
Jay -
Laetitia Spigarelli
Sandrine -
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Remi Martin
Jean-Pierre -
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Clean Trailer & Photos
All Critics (67) | Top Critics (29) | Fresh (47) | Rotten (19) | DVD (6)
A disappointment.
Top CriticCheung makes her character work, despite a weak plot and script, both by director Assayas.
Maggie Cheung gives an astonishingly complex performance as a junkie rock star trying to clean up her act.
There are so many quiet, understated miracles unfolding in Clean that all you can do is watch in awe and amazement.
It helps -- immensely -- that Cheung is pitch-perfect. Her performance is heartbreaking.
It's a joy to watch the characters in this grown-up drama interact, their exchanges laced with anger and doubt, sadness and regret.
A tough tale that gives a fresh perspective and brittle honesty to the experiences of a recovering drug addict.
A worthwhile examination of the crash landing of a delusional junkie with an attitude who has no business behaving like a spoiled-rotten diva.
It's a movie about bad choices and suffering the consequences and unfortunately, a lot of the suffering is done on the audience's side of the movie screen.
While this somber drug-abuse drama contains few surprises -- it's pretty much what we've come expect to expect from such material -- Cheung's convincing performance as a drug addict is what makes it watchable.
While it may sound like the premise for a Lifetime movie starring Tori Spelling, Clean pulls off the difficult task of telling a deeply emotional story without slipping into excessive sentimentality.
Cheung reveals a wealth of intense emotions, never once going for a predictable emotional chord.
The rough, exposed emotional candor of Cheung's singing voice carries into her performance...
The viewer comes to identify with Jay, feeling jerked around and not really wanting to get to know Emily, a lost soul who isn't worth two hours of audience investment to find.
One of the most emotionally honest movies about drug addiction ever made. Well, maybe not addiction per se, but rather the attempt to disgorge oneself from heroin's grip.
Beautifully shot and cut, written with a visceral aversion to cliche, deftly skirting sentimentality, sensationalism and simplicity, it continually surprises, engages and satisfies.
Audience Reviews for Clean
Maggie Cheung completely owned this role. She gives one of the most powerful, troubled, convictive performances I've seen in a very long time. Nick Nolte is great, as well, but this is Cheung's movie.
Don't bother picking this one up if you consider yourself even slightly short of attention.
Super Reviewer
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Another interesting point is that it´s not really a sweet movie about mother and son knowing each other and getting close. Emily is not likeable and she´s not even sure if she wants to settle down. However, it´s more to a "typical" drama movie than any other Olivier Assayas´s movies (I´ve seen) where "nothing really happens".