Main Cast: Michael Keaton, Kathy Baker, Morgan Freeman, M. Emmet Walsh, Brian Benben, Tate Donovan
Release Year: 1988
Country: US
Run Time: 124 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
The directorial debut of Glenn Gordon Caron, the creator of the television series Moonlighting (1985-89), this intense, gritty drama was received as one of the best-ever cinematic treatments of substance abuse. Michael Keaton stars as Daryl Poynter, a hustling, successful Philadelphia real estate agent who has become addicted to cocaine. He's already got problems, including nearly a $100,000 embezzled from his employer and lost on the stock market, when he wakes up one morning with a young woman dead in his bed from a coke overdose. His company is asking questions about the missing funds, and the dead girl's father is plastering his neighborhood with posters accusing Daryl of being a murderer, so he decides to hide out in an anonymous drug treatment program. There, however, Daryl runs into tough-minded counselor and former addict Craig (Morgan Freeman), who has heard all of Daryl's lies and tricks before. Daryl also finds romance with an abused fellow addict, Charlie Standers (Kathy Baker), and understanding with his Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor (M. Emmet Walsh). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
Review
This searing portrait of a substance abuser never flinches in examining the brutal realities of his condition, boasting fine performances from a trio of lead actors doing some of their career best work. Michael Keaton is superb as an unrepentant coke addict, embracing and brandishing with abandon the sardonic edges of his personality that he normally works so hard to blunt or channel into comic energy. In one of his early, pre-stardom roles, Morgan Freeman is simply awe-inspiring as the worldly counselor who's heard it all before; so deftly and skillfully does he bring his supporting role to life that one longs for a sequel focusing only on his character and back story. Freeman is reunited with his Street Smart (1987) co-star Kathy Baker, who delivers a haunting, wounded, and ultimately heartbreaking performance as a battered woman, a far cry from the accomplished professional roles she would later customarily inhabit. If there's a major flaw to Glenn Gordon Caron's directorial debut, it's a very wobbly first act that is somewhat overreaching and labored in its effort to depict the film's protagonist as having hit bottom. One can certainly do so without embezzling money or sleeping next to a corpse; but the grim workaday realities that powerfully inform the rest of the film escape it in its early sequences. Fortunately, Clean and Sober finds its narrative footing and ends up ranking among the better cinematic portrayals of addiction. If not for those regrettable first act problems, it would likely be considered a strong candidate for the same league occupied by The Lost Weekend (1945) and Days of Wine and Roses (1962). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
Luca Bercovici - Lenny; Henry Judd Baker - Xavier; Claudia Christian - Iris; J. David Krassner - Tiller; Dakin Matthews - Bob; Mary Catherine Martin - Cheryl Ann; Michael Francis Clarke - Board Executive; Pamela Dunlap - Jane; Sandra Foster - Xavier's Girlfriend; Terri Hanauer - Admissions Counsellor; David A. Kimball - Doctor; Harley Jane Kozak - Ralston Receptionist; Doug MacHugh - Board Executive; Stephanie Menuez - Ticket Agent; Leslie Neale - Sheila; Ben Piazza - Kramer; Al Pugliese - Detective; Veronica Redd - Head Nurse in Detox; Douglas Roberts - Mark; Claudia Robinson - Cleaning Lady; Serina Robinson - Karen Peluso; Rachel Ryan - Karen Peluso; Nick Savage - Gary "Ike Turner"; Anne Kerry Ford - Debbie Laux; Michael Leopard - Steel-Mill Foreman; Sharon Medearis - Nurse; Jean Nash - Rita; Glenn Daniels; Marion Dougherty; Pat Quinn - June
Credit
Eric Orbom - Art Director, Tod Carroll - Associate Producer, Glenn Daniels - Casting, Marion Dougherty - Casting, Deborah Blum - Co-producer, Jay Daniel - Co-producer, Tony Ganz - Co-producer, Robert Turturice - Costume Designer, James Simons - First Assistant Director, Glenn Gordon Caron - Director, Richard Chew - Editor, Ron Howard - Executive Producer, Gabriel Yared - Composer (Music Score), Archie Bell - Songwriter, Billy Buttier - Songwriter, Gretchen Christopher - Songwriter, Barbara Ellis - Songwriter, Robert Feldman - Songwriter, Gerald Goldstein - Songwriter, Richard Gottehrer - Songwriter, Carmela Guida - Songwriter, Frank Guida - Songwriter, Barbara Lewis - Songwriter, Van Morrison - Songwriter, Joseph Royster - Songwriter, Gary Troxel - Songwriter, Robert Latham Brown - Production Designer, Joel Schiller - Production Designer, Jan Kiesser - Cinematographer, Brian Grazer - Producer, Ron Howard - Producer, Greg Papalia - Set Designer, Donald J. Remacle - Set Designer, Ronald Judkins - Sound/Sound Designer, Chris Howell - Stunts, Glenn Gordon Caron - Screenwriter, Tod Carroll - Screenwriter, Buddy Johnson - Featured Music
Daryl Poynter is a successful, arrogant and self-destructive Philadelphia real estate salesman who is addicted to cocaine. He embezzles $92,000 of his company's money from an escrow account to feed his addiction, and then loses it all in the stock market.
Waking up one morning next to a dead girl who suffered a heart attack from too much cocaine, he begins to realize his life is out of control. In an attempt to evade police authorities and his debt to the company, he enters a drug rehabilitation program.
There, he meets Craig, a tough but supportive drug rehabilitation counselor. With great difficulty, Craig helps Daryl to realize he is an addict and his life is complete chaos. He says to him, "The best way to break old habits is to make new ones."
Daryl is paired with the older, reformed alcoholic and addict Richard Dirks, who will act as his sponsor. Richard eventually encourages Daryl to confess at work what he's done with the money. He is promptly fired.
Daryl becomes attracted to a fellow patient, a woman named Charlie Standers. She is a steel foundry worker who is addicted to alcohol and cocaine. Charlie is involved in an abusive relationship with her drug-using, unemployed boyfriend Lenny, who regularly beats her, then begs for forgiveness.
Daryl falls in love with Charlie and urges her to leave Lenny. He finally succeeds, only to witness Lenny's manipulative way of winning her back. Daryl tries to remain in Charlie's life to help her stay sober. After another fight with Lenny, she leaves the house, attempts to use drugs and is killed in a car accident.
In despair, Daryl also feels a strong temptation to return to drugs. He visits Richard, who talks him out of it. The story has a bittersweet ending as Daryl, confused and depressed, accepts his 30 Day Sobriety Chip. As lonely as he's ever been, he appears to have finally accepted the path towards staying clean and sober.
