Bit of a mediocre drama from writer-director Assayas despite some good turns, not least from Nick Nolte and Beatrice Dalle.
Comment
07/05/05
Clean (2006)
71
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:63
Fresh:45
Rotten:18
Average Rating:6.6/10
Consensus: In one of her best roles, Cheung gives a believable and arresting performance as a recovering addict.
Theatrical Release:2004-00
Synopsis: Maggie Cheung gives an extraordinary performance in CLEAN, written and directed by her ex-husband, Olivier Assayas (DEMONLOVER). Cheung stars as Emily Wang, a junkie living with fading... [More]
Starring: Nick Nolte, Maggie Cheung, James Johnston, Don McKellar
Director: Olivier Assayas
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Reviews for Clean
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05/20/06
The film locates its heart muscle, however, in its performances.
06/24/06
Mr. Assayas has given us an international soap opera with little or no dramatic substance.
05/10/06
Top CriticWonderfully written and performed, 'Clean' is an understated gems.
03/04/05
It's the moral journey of Nolte's character that is the real story in Clean, but Assayas instead focuses on the manipulative habits of an addict, resulting in a mannered study of narcissism and self-pity.
06/08/06
Rarely has the need for speed (or heroin, or methadone, or ...) been as credibly jumbled-up on screen with the desire to get straight and put one's life in order.
05/19/06
Some directors (mainly those starting with A, as in Altman or Almodóvar) can get away with doing things differently. French director Olivier Assayas is another A director who can.
09/21/04
A beautifully wrought, flawed work that is utterly fascinating.
03/04/05
Assayas tells her tale sympathetically, but this sad saga lacks substance. He sells the wretch but not the redemption.
06/09/06
Top CriticPlays like the work of a great auteur working in sandbox mode to build a world that has too much of the whiff of hipster fabulism about it to play at gut level.
05/02/06
One of those movies that's slightly off the mark in ways that are hard to put a finger on, but it is shot so soulfully and features such beautiful performances that it's easy to forgive the occasional false note.
05/19/06
Top CriticIt'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.
12/27/06
... sharply delineated, as though cutting its images from the chaotic muck of life with a chisel. In short, it's a very clean piece of work.
04/28/06
It's a film that hasn't found what it's looking for.
04/27/06
The film that showed the world Maggie Cheung is more than just a strikingly beautiful face.
05/25/06
Top CriticFeels true to the life of third-string musicians on the road.
04/14/05
...excels at depicting the mundane, day-to-day details that persist despite personal calamities.
05/01/06
Heroin really screws you up. And this deathly dull drug drama will do the same – if you manage to get to the end, that is.
07/05/05
Cheung, a star of Irma Vep and many Chinese films, has probably her best role so far, even after working for Wong Kar-wai and Zhang Yimou.
06/09/06
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