Maggie Cheung is impressive in this film, which showcases her as a serious actor and woman of the world, as she seamlessly speaks English, French, and Cantonese (and even sings). Nick Nolte turns in a fine performance as well. Unfortunately, I found the script to this story of redemption from drugs not as strong as their acting, often wandering, and Olivier Assayas's direction to plod along. I confess that addiction movies are harder for me to enjoy to begin with. The musical performances and soundtrack for such a film could have been better showcased, which, while I suppose wasn't the point of the movie, would have made it more entertaining. I did like the cinematography and panoramic shots that Eric Gautier gave us, but wouldn't recommend this movie without reservations.

A Low-Budget & Overlooked Gem. A Good Soundtrack & Solid Performance By The Lead Both Add Weight To This Look Inside Grief & Loss. Nolte Gives It His Genuine Best With What I Gather Is Some First Hand Experience He Can Go From Given His Own Life Was A Little Mixed Up Around The Time This Was Made. It Is A Little Slow At Times But It Doesn't Shy Away From The Inevitable Tests On The Self, Family & Overall Consequences Of The Drug Scene.

impressive actresses.

one of my favorite Nick Nolte performances

Strong drama about a woaman trying to reconstruct herself after years of being using drugs. Heartbreaking.

3.5/5 --- Three languages in one film [English, French, Cantonese], a film that's intelligently made with quiet understated but impact full scenes about how a moment[s] in one's life can change our future and ourselves. Maggie Cheung is a tour de force in this film as a hard-shelled but tender person/character struggling along to do the right thing. Nick Nolte is the best I've seen him in years...or perhaps ever. Change is possible of you want t enough :) *I couldn't connect emotionally otherwise might've been a 4, had a migraine...

A very interesting movie.

Clean works as a thoughtful, smart, and realistic look at drug abuse and the ramifications from it. It features a powerful and nuanced performance by Maggie Cheung and Nick Nolte, albeit in a similar role for him. It doesn't opt for cliched resolutions or answers, but is really quite authentic. At the same time, the film does have an overly slow pace, which borders on meandering, and does seem to occasionally lose focus, at first attempting to introduce various subplots, but never quite paying them off. Still, an effective drama marked by strong acting. 3.5/5 Stars

Maggie Cheung is stellar and should have at minimum received an Oscar nod. Powerful and realistic vision of that fall from grace of addiction and redemption.

Spectacular performance of Cheung and its clear that she is not only the muse of Wong Kar-wai but Assayas as well.

Assayas's aesthetic and the lead performances by Nolte and Cheung elevate an otherwise flawed narrative to a level above watchability. It has a few fully realized, nearly profound visual moments (the first 20 minutes are certainly the best). I have the fleeting desire to just completely rip off what Assayas was going for, because the type of narrative is so interesting - woman suffering to redeem herself. If it wasn't for a few completely unbelievable plot devices, this could have been greatness.

The talented and beautiful Maggie Cheung shines in her role as Emily. A woman struggling to clean up her life and make something of herself after so many mistakes and failures. A powerful and moving drama.

A strong performance by Cheung, who avoids the easy melodrama usually used to portray the long road of addiction recovery. It was nice to see Beatrice Dalle again.

Maggie Cheung's strongest performance to date. Grim, grim stuff.

Like a painting on the wall of the Met, films should continue to invite inspection long after the voyeur has left the theater--like true art should. Slow and bleak but still poignant, Clean kinda sort does this, leaving room for interpretation from filmgoers...if the audience is patient enough to take the whole journey with the characters. Wrestling with a failing singing career, drug addiction, and being an absentee mother to her young son, Emily Wang (Cheung) suddenly finds her life turned upside down and inside out by her husband's death in the R-rated Clean. Despite weaving a slow-going tale, director Olivier Assayes still renders an exceptional and complicated tale of redemption simply by posing the following question: "Can people change?" Backed with luminous performances, especially that of an extra grizzly Nick Nolte as her long-suffering father-in-law, Assayes wholly succeeds not by fully answering the question, but by allowing filmgoers to identify with this reality. Bottom line: Good habit.

So so good. Beautiful.

Good performances from Maggie Chung and especially Nick Nolte, but this film is really really slow and if you are not interested in the subject matter it is going to put you to sleep.....

Sep 2010 - A very simple story that fades appropriately when we want to see the personality of the main character and her efforts to get back to a normal life with her kid. The actin of Maggie Cheung is incredible and the scenes with the child are so well delivered.

After watching his delicious 'Demonlover' some time ago, i decided to investigate Assayas's art further. 'Clean' is an interesting albeit a little slow-moving film that I definitely enjoyed. Maggie Cheung has a very interesting face and I simply liked watching her play heroin addict giving up drugs for the sake of her son, although I am not at all sure that she is much of an actress.

ronesans mi desem sutun icinde cirpinan kurbaga mi... bilemedim...