Clean (2006)

After several years of living together, Lee Hauser and Emily Wang are all washed up. Mythical rock star of the 80s, Lee no longer has a recording contract. They travel from one small town to another playing small gigs, living on broken dreams. A carefree life of easy money and fame has gone to ruin. A child left with Lee’s parents. And drugs. When Lee is found dead of an overdose in a motel room on the outskirts of a small, industrial Canadian town, Emily is arrested for possession of drugs and put into prison. At the snap of a finger, her life falls to pieces. When she is released six months later, she decides to start over in Paris where she once lived. But everything has changed. It’s another era. The one thing to which she still feels a sense of attachment is her son, Jay, who is growing up with Lee’s parents, Albrecht and Rosemary Hauser. But they live on the other side of the world in Vancouver, Canada. If Emily ever hopes to see Jay again, she is going to have to find a job and get off Methadone, which she started taking in prison. She’ll have to give up a lot of things, especially her dream of being a singer--an inaccessible fantasy. But tragedy brings everyone together. Rosemary is ill and must get treatment in England. Albrecht is lucid: he is not getting any younger and will not be able to raise Jay alone. He is going to have to overcome his hesitation and take a step towards Emily. Does Emily have what it takes to be a good mother? Is she capable of seizing the opportunity that destiny offers? Or is she going to spoil everything and go to San Francisco where she has been asked to record an album? Will she decide to run away or stay with her son? Does Jay want a mother like Emily?