Midnight Oil:Movies and More

“Clean and Sober” (1988) with Michael Keaton, Kathy Baker and Morgan Freeman makes for a hard-hitting onscreen drama about addiction that has seldom been surpassed. Keaton’s performance as the self-absorbed Daryl Poynter, real estate agent, coke addict and all around jerk, is simply excellent. The façade of the high roller slowly unravels. The action of the film takes place over the course of one calendar month in the life of the addict. Instead of being the guy pulling the strings behind the scenes, Daryl Poynter comes to see that he is not in control. His life is one big, tangled mess. It’s a hard pill to swallow.

Through the unintended help of people like his rehab counselor (Morgan Freeman), his A.A. sponsor (M. Emmet Walsh ) and others, Daryl Poynter gets a major dose of reality therapy just in time. We see him actually undergo a step of evolution and graduate from the level of “pond scum” (the scene where he cons his old mother on the phone) to semi-human status (the scene where he tries to help his fellow addict, Charlie, make the phone call to exit her abusive relationship). It’s not easy. It’s not meant to be an easy film. Keaton’s masterful closing scene at the A.A. meeting is painful to watch – a man so uneasy in his own skin that you think he might just crawl out of it. In the end, the film helps one to understand that the uneasiness of it all is necessary if there is to be a hope in hell of recovery.

Also reviewed on this blog is another feature screened on TVO's Saturday Night at the Movies "Days of Wine and Roses" (1962) with Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick.

>>More to see: Looking for more out of life?

>> Real life story, Brian Welch: finding a way out of addiction.

See the video trailer for "Clean and Sober" (1988).