Clean Hands (2026) – Review and Summary | Tribeca Film Festival

Zach Braff and Esther McGregor deliver a “Based on a True Story” film that doesn’t feel like an exploitation of someone’s hardship, but a call to action that doesn’t feel preachy.

ByAmari Allah Hours Posted on

Spoiler Alert: This summary and review contains spoilers.

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“Clean Hands” Film Details

Movie Summary

19-year-old Brooke Simmers, if her dad were anyone else, would just be another junkie in the Hagerstown, Maryland area. But, with her dad, Kevin Simmers, being a famed by some, notorious by others, narcotics officer? She has the safety net that many of the people Kevin has arrested don’t.

Throughout the film, you watch as Kevin spends money, uses his influence, pushes the limit of what he can legally do at his job, and does everything possible to get and keep his daughter clean. With you often left to wonder, is even that enough, or will he love her to death?

Cast and Characters

Brooke (Esther McGregor)

Brooke (Esther McGregor) – Clean Hands
  • Character Summary: Brooke is a 19-year-old girl who was fairly into basketball in high school, but has unfortunately become an addict. Percocets are her drug of choice, and for the most part, she is a functioning addict, still able to stay in her father’s good graces and, more often than not, able to hide her struggles if he doesn’t look her in the eye.

Kevin (Zach Braff)

  • Character Summary: A leader in the Hagerstown police district, Kevin is damn near a golden boy. He handles his cases with clean hands, never doing a thing that could complicate prosecution, and his numbers have reached heights where he brings good press to his precinct. However, while professionally he is looked up to and likely could become chief if he wanted, his personal life is a bit more complicated. While happily married, his daughter struggles in ways that should embarrass the top narcotics officer in Maryland, but don’t. However, with how long Brooke has been suffering, it has led to Kevin slowly but surely becoming cold, but outright unable to abandon his daughter.

Review and Commentary

Highlight(s)

One Of The Best Ways To Use “Based On A True Story” [88/100]

When you see “Based On A True Story,” it can often feel like the subject matter was a noteworthy headline, with details begging to become a movie or show. This leads to a split where sometimes you get productions like Sovereign, which came out in the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival, or films like Clean Hands.

Sovereign fits the mold of exploiting the subject matter for entertainment, while Clean Hands pushes for understanding, empathy, and doesn’t just present the drama or a problem, but also a solution. Beyond a montage showing you the real Kevin and Brooke, it also points you in the direction of how you can not just be a voyeur, witnessing the darkest parts of Kevin’s life, but help prevent what Brooke went through.

Zach Braff and Esther McGregor [87/100]

While Zach Braff is no stranger to dramatic roles, I would submit Clean Hands pushes the limits of how you may have seen him as an actor. As a cop, there is this intensity as he deals not only with his daughter’s plight, but the environment she is addicted to as much as heroin and Percocet. Yet, at the same time, there is this jovial nature as he is joking with his fellow cops, and during the good times, getting to enjoy being a father.

It’s not that we never foresaw Braff capable of this kind of role, considering we’re enough of a fan to watch all the movies he wrote, and a good portion of the ones he directed. But I think like many, we get comfortable with actors playing a certain type. So when it comes to Braff in Clean Hands, he forces you out of that comfort zone and reminds you that he is an actor well into the second decade of his career.

Which leads us to Esther McGregor, whose career is just getting started. Now, I won’t lie to you, as someone who watches Euphoria, Zendaya’s performance as an addict was in my brain, and there were early comparisons. However, there comes a point when you feel reminded that no addict’s story is the same. Brooke has a maternal figure and loving father, with the police force backing him, which keeps Brooke with a cushioned safety net throughout the movie.

On top of that, the look of where she grew up isn’t transitional, and with how much Kevin spends on rehab, it doesn’t seem far-fetched to believe he sent Brooke to a private school. Yet, as shown again and again, it doesn’t matter your ethnicity, your socio-economic background; once you’re hooked, you’re hooked, and the challenge isn’t just detoxing but staying clean.

In what could be a topic within itself, McGregor really goes through it as we see her try to get better and finds herself facing expensive private treatment centers, public ones, which are certainly unsafe for a 19-year-old girl, who is barely 100 pounds, and a healthcare system that is underfunded, seen as a blight, and doesn’t often create long-term solutions. If anything, often what we see is just enough help to sweat it out, and then back into the environment you go, where staying sober is hard.

Their shared performances create a film which, I wouldn’t say, makes you cry as much as expected, but it does build up a swell of emotions that makes you hope and pray you don’t find yourself loving someone as vibrant and wonderful as Brooke, who can’t help themselves.

How Cops Can Help Or Hurt a Community [82/100]

Despite the focus on a real-life officer, I wouldn’t say Clean Hands is committed to glorifying cops or their role in the war on drugs. It certainly portrays them as well-meaning, but also recognizes their role in the community can be more disruptive than helpful. Never mind, they can make bad and desperate situations worse, by either selectively or with indifference, enforce the law.

Take note, Brooke doesn’t sell drugs, but has been caught multiple times using, associating with dealers, and holding. Kevin busts people and has made a career from going after people like her, “cleaning up the streets.” But besides either putting people in prison or giving them rap sheets, it becomes clear that he isn’t making a dent.

Heck, even in terms of his interactions, for many, he knows them by name and doesn’t build a rapport or present himself as trustworthy. At best, he is someone that repeat offenders mess around with for fun, because he has been in their life so much, for better or worse, there is familiarity. But has there ever been an effort on his part to help them, not just serve and protect area they don’t live in and likely don’t venture to? No.

It makes what we see towards the end of the movie remind you that so many public servant jobs, admittedly, are overwhelmed, underpaid, and misunderstood, likely do need reform. For what their original purpose was decades, if not more than a century ago, need to evolve. Otherwise, as shown by the pipeline of drug arrests, rehab, period of sobriety, and back again, while many industries will make money, the people will suffer.

Overall

Our Rating (85/100): Positive (Worth Seeing) – Recommended

Whether it is the performances, how it uses a true story, or the depiction of not only addicts and a societal problem, but also presenting solutions, Clean Hands does far more than what most films seem to desire to do. It wants to be more than entertainment, featuring recognizable names showing off their charm, their acting chops, and making the ticket price worth it. There is also a push to recognize that there is more to what you see than just another story to kill an hour and a half. This is real life, and as much as escapism is necessary, so is enlightenment.

Hence, the positive label and recommendation. Clean Hands balances the entertainment you expect when going to see a movie, but doesn’t disrespect the fact that this is based on someone’s actual life. Making it possess something beyond entertainment value as it seeks not only understanding, but presents a multitude of problems and one solution.

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Amari is the founder and head writer of Wherever-I-Look.com and has been reviewing media since 2010. He approaches each production with hope, rooting for every story to succeed, and believes criticism should come from unmet potential, while praise is reserved for work that meets or exceeds expectations.