Review: Pom Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold

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Clean

Maggie Cheung gives a great performance as aspiring rock chanteuse

By PETER KEOUGH | June 7, 2006

3.0 Stars

CLEAN: Burn out or fade away? Are there children involved?

As Courtney Love can tell you, the choice between burning out and fading away gets complicated when children are involved. Emily Wang (Maggie Cheung), girlfriend of rocker Lee Hauser (James Johnston) and an aspiring rock chanteuse (she’s a kind of new-age Nico), doesn’t act up as much as Love, but she can be a handful. While on tour she blows off Lee’s agent, busts up with Lee, and drives off loaded on heroin. When she returns to the motel, Lee has ODed. After six months in the joint, Emily moves to Paris, leaving behind her six-year-old boy with Lee’s dad, Albrecht (Nick Nolte), but not her drug problem, her feelings of guilt, or her maternal longings. Olivier Assayas renders this familiar tale with sleek indirection, his elliptical cutting perversely leaving out the scenes of the most intense emotion. Hovering over all are Brian Eno’s haunting soundscapes, which echo the anguish of Cheung’s terrific performance.

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