Cover of "Clean"

Cover of Clean

Clean, the engrossing 2003 picture by Olivier Assayas, stretches from Canada to Western Europe, and from heroin to methadone to “clean.”

Maggie Cheung gets jailed in Canada for possession, then moves to Paris to beat her addiction.  Plus she wants to see her young son in London.  It’s all very hard.  Cheung’s recovering addict is a stumbling bisexual and would-be Deborah Harry (another former addict), living with humiliation.  Speaking now in French, now in English, Maggie’s acting is outstanding, full of depth.  She and director-writer Assayas were married but got divorced during the filming of Clean, and Cheung is not in good spirits.  Sad.  There are some things just as lamentable as drug addition.