CLEAN AND SOBER
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1988 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: Overly long story of an embezzler,
alcoholic, and drug addict who is half-heatedly trying to get
his life together. A hard-hitting film on this subject is
needed, but this film only occasionally has what it would
take. Rating: +1.
Back in 1962 Jack Lemmon had a reputation as a comic actor and surprised audiences by playing a dramatic role and being *very* good at it. The film was DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES. The story was of a young couple with everything going for them whose lives are ripped apart by an alcoholism problem. Somehow to audiences who had seen Lemmon in a humorous context, his serious role seemed all the more serious. Well, times have changed since DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES, and while alcoholism is no less a problem drug addiction is much more of a problem today so, perhaps even inspired by WINE AND ROSES, comedy actor Michael Keaton is currently starring in the serious CLEAN AND SOBER.
While DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES concentrated on why a successful young man would get an alcohol problem, it is clear from early on that Daryl Poynter (played by Keaton) is a jerk who deserves the worst that his alcoholism and drug problem will bring him, so the film wastes none of its 124 minutes on how he got into this state. Instead, the film starts with the incident that finally causes Keaton to check himself into a detoxification clinic and tells how even there he tries to sidestep his problem rather than confronting it. Most of the film covers Keaton trying very hard to relapse into being once again the addict who embezzled $92,000 to support his habit. The real heroes are ex-addicts Craig (played by Morgan Freeman) and Richard (played by M. Emmet Walsh), who take no nonsense in trying to straighten out Poynter against his will. Craig runs the rehabilitation clinic; Richard heads up the local chapter of Alcoholics Anonymous.
Where CLEAN AND SOBER goes most astray is in Poynter's romantic attachment to fellow clinic attendee Charlie Standers (played by Kathy Baker). In spite of the fact that both are addicts, Poynter's attempts to get involved in Standers's life are something of a diversion and a distraction from the central theme. It is through his relationship with Standers that Keaton will eventually get serious about his own problem, but the screentime spent on that aspect of the plot is excessive in a film that is overly long anyway. That screentime could have been more effectively used in telling the story of Poynter's problem. It is good to see a serious film, well-acted, on the problem of substance abuse, but a better film than CLEAN AND SOBER really is needed. Rate it a +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
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