When her husband, rocklegend Lee Hauser, dies from a heroin overdose, & she
is found with some bags of heroin, Emily (Maggie Cheung) is put into a Canadian
prison for 6 months & made responsible for Lee's death by the press. Coming
out of prison she tries to stay off the heroin but is soon addicted to all
sorts of painblockers. Her father-in-law Albrecht (Nick Nolte), who has taken
care of her son with his wife Rosemary (Martha Henry) while she was in priosn,
asks Emily to stay clear of Jay, at least for the time being, to not throw the
kid off balance - to which she agrees heavy-heartedly, & leaves Canada for
France, where she had early success as a music video host, to get her act back
together - not at least to get her son back.
However, she doesn't succeed in achieving much as nobody seems to interested
in the demos of her late husband, Tricky (playing himself), a friend of her
husband refuses outright to help her in getting back her son, Irène (Jeanne
Balibar), the erstwhile producer from her tv-days, is by now the typical
successful mediaperson who tends to forget old friends when they no longer fit
into the prevailing clean-shaven media image, & soon she is even fired from
her job as waitress at a Chinese restaurant & - without money for the rent
- has to move n with an old friend (Béatrice Dalle).
Then Rosemary, Emily's mother-in-law who holds her responsible for Lee's
death, has to go to England for medical treatment, & soon it becomes clear
that she might be dieing soon, & Albrecht, who has always been more
sympathetic towards Emily, decides to bring Jay over to France so Emily can at
least see him ... but at first the meeting seems to be a fiasco, since Jay too
believes his mom is responsible for his dad's death - only gradually he starts
to bond with his mom & in the end he wants to go to San Francisco with her
where she is to start her singing career ... a plan that is vetoed by Albrecht
though, but he asks her to after her recording-sessions in San francisco with
David Roback (also playing himself) come to join them in London - not the least
because Rosemary might not be along soon & Albrecht himself doubts he can
be a good parents' substitute for Jay ...
This film does work not so much because of its story - which while not being
bad is not that great either but rather tried-&-true drama material - but
because of great central performances - first & foremost by Maggie Cheung
& Nick Nolte, who would be half the admission price in any film - & a
very intimate & unjudgemental direction that stays clear of portraying
Emily's efforts as a phoenix-out-of-the-ashes-type story, instead creating a
multi-levelled portray.
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