Review of Clean

I could easily imagine Hollywood remaking Olivier Assayas' Clean – in fact, I would be happy to see it. The story is a sure-fire Oscar winner. Whichever big Hollywood actress wants her Oscar, step right up. But it would certainly be melodramatic, and could never match the raw power contained in this film. Maggie Cheung plays a woman, Emily, trying to stay away from heroin after her husband has overdosed. Their son lives with her father-in-law (Nick Nolte), who insists (though kindly) that she not see him for a few years, until she has proved that she can be responsible. The movie is mostly spent with Emily and her day-to-day life. She moves back to Paris, where she met her husband, and works in a Chinese restaurant, then in a department store. She desperately tries to get in contact with old friends who might help her get a decent job, but they all know her too well and don't trust her. The film is very observant of Emily as a human being. It's such an intimate portrait of a desperate person trying to get her life back together – perhaps together for the first time in her life. Assayas, who also wrote the script, understands her deeply. And Maggie Cheung even moreso. Cheung gives one of the finest performances I've ever seen. Just the expressions on her face devastated me from scene to scene. I mean, she is so subtle. It's just outstanding. Assayas' direction is likewise subtle. A Hollywood remake, I could imagine, could also be subtle, but nowhere near as quiet and observant as the original (in fact, scanning through user comments, I can see that many were simply bored by the film). While it would be easy to spend pages gushing over Cheung's performance, it must also be noted that Nick Nolte is at least at the same level. This may very well be his best performance. It helps immensely that the character is so perfectly written. It would have been easy to make him a jerk – and, again, thinking ahead to the remake, it's quite possible that that is what this character will become – but Assayas gives him a deep understanding of Emily's situation, and an ability to empathize that I don't think can exist in American cinema. Nolte hits every note exactly right. His line reading is just beautiful. My single complaint about the film is the child actor who plays the son. I suppose it must have been difficult to find a half-Chinese, half-Caucasian kid on a limited budget who could act. They certainly did not find a kid who could act, though. James Dennis is easily one of the worst child actors I've seen in years. It's a flaw I can forgive, though. The movie ends very ambiguously, and it's arguable whether Assayas made the right choice here. I could argue that it feels too hopeful. There's a quick, matter-of-fact shot in which we see a smile cross Emily's face. I think I would have cut that and perhaps directed Cheung to avoid any readable facial expression. However, I know it didn't escape the director – or the actress either – that Emily, who is clean at this point, is approaching the world in which she fell into the trap of drug addiction. It might be better for her to stay working at a department store, perhaps somewhere cheaper to live than Paris.