Clean and Sober

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Clean and Sober
Promotional movie poster for the film
Directed by	Glenn Gordon Caron
Produced by	Ron Howard Jay Daniel
Written by	Tod Carroll
Starring	Michael Keaton Kathy Baker M. Emmet Walsh Morgan Freeman Tate Donovan
Music by	Gabriel Yared
Cinematography	Jan Kiesser
Editing by	Richard Chew
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date(s)	August 10, 1988 August 17, 1989 April 25, 1990 May 4 May 18 June 29
Running time	124 min.
Country	U.S.A.
Language	English
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Clean and Sober is a 1988 dramatic movie directed by Glenn Gordon Caron and starring Michael Keaton as a slick commercial real estate agent who learns the hard way about his dependence on drugs (cocaine and alcohol).

The cast also includes Kathy Baker, M. Emmet Walsh, Morgan Freeman, and Tate Donovan.

[edit] Tagline

Thirty remarkable days in the life of an ordinary man.

[edit] Characters

CRAIG (Morgan Freeman)

For Zack Mayo, there was Gunnery Sergeant Emil Foley (in An Officer and a Gentleman). For Jessie Montgomery, there was Stella the Fairy Godmother (in Maid to Order). And for cocaine-addicted hotshot Daryl Poynter, there’s this tough—yet highly caring and supportive—drug rehabilitation counselor who’s heard everybody’s story at least twice before. Consequently, he sees right through his newest and most difficult charge. Having met countless others just like Daryl, Craig has forgotten more alibis and evasions than most druggies have thought up. He knows that unless Daryl gets serious, this guy is going to get screwed up again—or worse than that—as soon as he goes back out on the streets. Accordingly, he partners Daryl with a fellow patient in the hope that they’ll keep each other clean and sober.

DARYL POYNTER (Michael Keaton)

Hotshot Philadelphia real estate salesman for whom there is nothing in life of any real importance, except cocaine. He doesn’t even question the fact. The problem isn’t that he needs cocaine to function—because he doesn’t really function at all, he just goes through the motions. The problem is that he needs cocaine to still himself from the savage and restless angers of his need for cocaine, which is needed to still himself from the savage and restless angers of his need for…you get the idea. It doesn’t go over very well that he picks up a girl in a bar, and they do some coke together; and the next morning when they wake up—well, she never wakes up, actually. The police are interested in what Daryl calls “just plain rotten luck,” and the girl’s father plasters their neighborhood with posters branding Daryl as a murderer. Things are not too good at work, either; Daryl has borrowed $92,000 from an escrow account and invested it in the market, hoping to make a lot of money. He has lost most of the money, instead, so he needs a place to hide out. When he hears on the radio about a confidential, anonymous drug rehabilitation program, he figures that might be a good place to disappear into. What he doesn’t count on is that the problem is run by a hard-headed counselor named Craig. Daryl is forced to look at the fact that his life is wildly out of control, that cocaine is the cause and not the solution. He fights this discovery every step of the way, and is far from being a model client in the rehab center. He steals phone calls, asking friends to send him cocaine in overnight Federal Express packages; he slips out of the center on wild, undefined missions; and, of course, he thinks he’s God’s gift to women—especially to cute fellow patient Charlie Standers. Finally, Daryl is ordered to get himself a “sponsor”—a veteran rehab member who will advise and help him. Being Daryl, he goes for the prettiest woman at the meeting. But eventually he winds up with the wise and lethargic Richard Dirks (M. Emmet Walsh), who knows what a lost cause Daryl could easily be. Daryl is not an ideal candidate for recovery. He tells too many lies, especially to himself, and he doesn’t much like to accept advice. He is still seduced by the notion that he can repair his old lifestyle into a workable state. But there may be some hope for him yet.

CHARLIE STANDERS (Kathy Baker)

A woman with two addictions; one is to booze. The other is to a certain man she lives with, who beats Charlie and then comes whining for her to forgive him, insisting he’s nothing without her. Charlie’s self-esteem has been so seriously wounded by her alcoholism that she clings to this loser, believing that he’s the only man who will accept her. That’s when coke-addict and fellow rehab-patient Daryl Poynter comes along to prove otherwise.