I stumbled upon this movie CLEAN one night, having read the synopsis and finding it rather intriguing, I decided to watch it. I always find that low budget indie's can make for a great night of movie watching for it feels where they lack in budget, they make up in acting, talent and a passion for the making of the film. Having seen that it won awards, I had a feeling I was going to have found a hidden and unknown gem.
What I discovered with this was anything but that, a film trying so hard to be good that it fails in every aspect known to man. It felt like the director was so happy to actually be making a feature, that he just made it without any thought or understanding of what it takes to tell a good emotional driven story and thought if you have all the dramatic scenes in there, that people would just feel like they were moved. Well, audience's are a lot smarter than this film wants to give them credit for.
The plot description is very simplistic, Maynard is trying to get CLEAN in LA and gets hired to drive a limo around, of course he runs into problems with a past relationship and ends up having to go down the dark path he so desperately tried to escape.
The film is thrown together with different characters he meets along the way but they are all one note characters. The snotty girl who's father is a millionaire and thinks she can get away with anything, the washed up actress who hates her life, the druggie ex girlfriend, and others that just detract from what could have been a really good movie.
I place the blame on the director who also wrote, edited, produced, and production designed the film. For someone who has that much control over his project, he should have known when it didn't work right. I read an earlier review that commented on the scene where Maynard outright yells and tears down a woman for eating breakfast during lunch which had no set up, no build up to why that character would explode on her in such a way, or have any affect on the film afterwords. It's like he just wanted to showcase dramatic performances but couldn't figure out how to make them work.
As for the acting, certain actors stood out more than others but could have been a lot better had they been given better material to work with. Some of the dialog seems very forced and unnatural leaving the actors performances coming off more like they are reading lines instead of becoming the characters they were playing.
The one good thing this movie has going for it is it's cinematography which looks really good however the way it's edited, the movie felt disconnected which is most likely due to the director and writer not being able to cut a scene or shot he wrote and directed. One can only imagine what could have become of this film had someone else edited it.
In the end, CLEAN is a very bland and poorly made movie with one note characters and a really unlikable lead character that we are supposed to relate and care for throughout the duration. Maynard seems like he hates everyone and everything in life, he's horrible to woman and just isn't at all redeemable in any way, shape or form. The constant abuse to women in this film also brings up questions (there wasn't a single female in this film that wasn't portrayed as a skank, druggie or ::censored word for female dog:: With so many better films about this subject matter out there, there isn't a single reason I can concoct in my mind why anyone would ever waste their time on watching this.
I checked out the director's filmography and found he has only done short films since he made this in 2004 which really didn't surprise me in the slightest. After watching CLEAN I can honestly see why.
