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Jessica Reaves, Chicago Tribune: It's a joy to watch the characters in this grown-up drama interact, their exchanges laced with anger and doubt, sadness and regret. Read more
Rex Reed, New York Observer: [Cheung] catalogs every up and down on the carousel of a recovering drug addict with a mix of despair, pain, strength, realism and poignancy that is mesmerizing. Read more
Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: Mr. Assayas has given us an international soap opera with little or no dramatic substance. Read more
Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: A disappointment. Read more
Jeff Shannon, Seattle Times: There are so many quiet, understated miracles unfolding in Clean that all you can do is watch in awe and amazement. Read more
Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: It's a complex, very successful portrayal of an addictive, selfish, volatile soul who knows she might be running out of chances at a decent life. Read more
Steve Murray, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Assayas' tale of the difficult search for redemption is less a standard road-to-sobriety story than a chance to marvel, close-up, at Cheung. Read more
Scott Tobias, AV Club: The film gets its distinction from the performances by Cheung and Nolte, whose scenes together are suffused with loss and unexpected mutual compassion. Read more
Ty Burr, Boston Globe: It's a globe-trotting drama with more than a touch of Wim Wenders whim to it. Read more
Carina Chocano, Los Angeles Times: One of those movies that's slightly off the mark in ways that are hard to put a finger on, but it is shot so soulfully and features such beautiful performances that it's easy to forgive the occasional false note. Read more
Bruce Westbrook, Houston Chronicle: Assayas tells her tale sympathetically, but this sad saga lacks substance. He sells the wretch but not the redemption. Read more
Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Not your average divorce gift. Read more
Christy Lemire, Associated Press: The film that showed the world Maggie Cheung is more than just a strikingly beautiful face. Read more
Scott Foundas, L.A. Weekly: The emotional truthfulness of Clean enters into our bloodstreams with its muted vigor, and we find ourselves getting hooked by this tale of getting unhooked. Read more
Marta Barber, Miami Herald: Cheung makes her character work, despite a weak plot and script, both by director Assayas. Read more
John Anderson, Newsday: As Emily's tale rolls out, it does so in fashion devoid of cliche and convention, toying with time and portraying a heroine who provokes contempt as easily as empathy. Read more
Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: As evidenced by the best actress award she earned at Cannes, Cheung rises to the occasion ... Read more
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Emily is played by Maggie Cheung with such intense desperation that she won the best actress award at Cannes 2004. Only a few actresses in the world could have handled this role from a technical point of view. Read more
Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: Maggie Cheung gives an astonishingly complex performance as a junkie rock star trying to clean up her act. Read more
John McMurtrie, San Francisco Chronicle: Despite Cheung's efforts (she won the best actress award at Cannes in 2004) and a strong and subtle supporting performance by Nick Nolte, the story could have used a good dose of adrenaline to keep it from often seeming lifeless. Read more
John DeFore, Slate: In Clean, Assayas returns to his comfort zone -- the world of appealing young people with interestingly chaotic lives -- and views it through the eyes of a woman who doesn't belong there anymore. Read more
Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: It's not so much a movie in three acts as three movies stuffed into a single casing, and often showing the strain. Read more
Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: What Clean needed was a little more dirt, or at least some of the grit that the addict fears will never entirely wash off. Read more
Michael Atkinson, Village Voice: All the same and despite Cheung's deserved Best Actress win at Cannes, the feigned intimacy with inexpressible bio-emotional conditions like addiction and detox leaves us, as it almost always does, on the outside. Read more
Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: It's the moral journey of Nolte's character that is the real story in Clean, but Assayas instead focuses on the manipulative habits of an addict, resulting in a mannered study of narcissism and self-pity. Read more