Clean

A story about addiction and about custody. Emily is the wife of a rock musician. Both of them use and their careers are finished. They are staying at a motel in Canada. Lee dies that night of an overdose. Emily is arrested. She serves six months and when she comes out nobody wants her; the music world holds her responsible for the death. Her son is in Canada. Jay lives with his grandparents and barely knows his mother. The grandfather, Albrecht, is not hard. He protects his grandson but leaves a door open for Emily as well: if she stays clean she can see him. From there the film is a story of putting oneself back together. Paris, a job in a Chinese restaurant, a kitchen, a methadone queue and old acquaintances. Emily wants to make music again. She knocks on doors, old friends do not pick up, and she gets into a studio with difficulty. What the narrative is interested in is not addiction but reputation: it finds the real obstacle not in the substance but in nobody wanting to give her a second chance. Albrecht's line is the film's soft place. As a man who has lost his own son he approaches Emily with understanding, and explains why in one scene. The languages keep changing. English, French and Cantonese within the same narrative; Emily's not belonging anywhere is built through language. Maggie Cheung won Best Actress at Cannes for the part. Maggie Cheung, Nick Nolte, Béatrice Dalle and Jeanne Balibar are in the cast. Olivier Assayas wrote and directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes slow, character-led drama set around music. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a redemption story; the film stays at a distance to the end and gives no moment of triumph.