Clean and Sober ( Clean & Sober )

Clean and Sober (DVD) (*)

~~$21.99~~ $18.98

Original Title: Clean & Sober
Screened, competed or awarded at:
Other Film Festival Awards

Language Selections:
English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
Spanish ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
Spanish ( Subtitles )

Product Origin/Format:
Spain ( PAL/Region 0 )

Running Time:
120 min

Aspect Ratio:
Fullscreen

Special Features:
Interactive Menu
Scene Access

Movie filmed in 1988 and produced in:
United States ( USA, Canada )

Directed By:
Glenn Gordon Caron

Written By:
Tod Carroll

Actors:
Michael Keaton ..... Daryl Poynter
Kathy Baker ..... Charlie Standers
Morgan Freeman ..... Craig
Tate Donovan ..... Donald Towle
Henry Judd Baker ..... Xavier
Claudia Christian ..... Iris
J. David Krassner ..... Tiller
Dakin Matthews ..... Bob
Mary Catherine Martin ..... Cheryl Ann
Patricia Quinn ..... June
Terri Hanauer ..... Admissions Counsellor
David A. Kimball ..... Doctor
Veronica Redd ..... Head Nurse - Detox
Sharie Doolittle ..... Nurse
Sharon Medearis ..... Nurse

Synopsis:

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).

When moderately successful Daryl (Micheal Keaton) wakes from a cocaine/drinking evening to find last night's date a little too passed out, he bundles her up and dumps her at a hospital and drives away. Then we find that he also has bad financial troubles. One wretching scene when he calls his parents very late at night asking for his inheritence now when it will do him some good is very well done. He needs to return stolen money at work before they find out what he's done, plus he needs more cocaine. When he finds the young lady he dumped at the hospital died he commences to find a way to avoid going to jail.He decides to check himself into a chemical dependency program, that way maybe the police won't find him, and if his employers do find him they'll realize he has found the error of his ways and is trying to rectify himself. Though once in rehab he runs head long into Craig (Morgan Freeman) who knows Daryl better than he knows himself. Craig is not at all sympathetic to anything Daryl is feeling or fearing. He knows because he's been there, but Daryl still tries to defy rules that just don't apply to him, he's different, not like those other junkies. He is made to comply or get out, which would mean to jail from both his employer and the death of the girl.Once finally in and part of, Daryl begins to see his part in much of the troubles in his life. He also notices fellow inmate Charlie (Kathy Baker) which is a distraction he does not need right now. Fixating on her gives him a pal to do all this work that needs to be done with, except, Charlie is married.Again I say, the writer has either been there or has really, really watched 'there,' because the behaviors are true. The lying, the promises, the rationalization, and the pain that takes place in these situations. As usual, it won't get the praise it deserves because for many it hits too close to home. They'll watch it happen to stars in the tabloids but it's happening in our own neighborhoods and schools. Open your eyes people!

Michael Keaton plays Daryl Poynter, a hot shot real estate agent who just happens to have a cocaine and drinking problem. One morning, he wakes up to find a dead woman in his bed(someone he had been partying with the night before)from a cocaine overdose. He also just happenes to recieve a phone call from his employers telling him a huge sum of money is missing from one of his accounts. Panicing, Daryl decides to check into a drug rehab to hide from the law, where he meets tough cookie Morgan Freeman. A recovering addict himself, he now works as a drug counselor, and knows all the tricks Daryl tries to pull. Soon Daryl discovers he just might be in the right place, afterall.

This product was added to our catalog on Sunday 20 November, 2011.