[Damian Lewis] is utterly riveting as a man who is all too aware that he's looking into the abyss and the scenes where he dips into outright mentalism are extremely uncomfortable to watch.
Keane (2004)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:58
Fresh:48
Rotten:10
Average Rating:7.1/10
Consensus: The scrutinizing camera angles of Keane might at first feel too close for comfort, but this powerful portrait of a man distraught by the abduction of his child plumbs the depths of mental illness and the corners of fleabag hotels in an intimate and touching examination of the seedier side of life.
Theatrical Release:22-09-2006
Synopsis: British actor Damian Lewis (BAND OF BROTHERS) gives a stunning lead performance in Lodge Kerrigan's powerful drama KEANE. He stars as William Keane, a man whose daughter was recently abducted at... British actor Damian Lewis (BAND OF BROTHERS) gives a stunning lead performance in Lodge Kerrigan's powerful drama KEANE. He stars as William Keane, a man whose daughter was recently abducted at the Port Authority in Manhattan, so he patrols the bus depot, recreating in his mind exactly how it happened to see if he can figure out who took her or where she might be. He talks to himself, shouts suddenly, and looks over his shoulder with fear and paranoia, an edgy, twitchy, wholly unnerving, and remarkable performance. When he befriends a down-on-her-luck woman (Amy Ryan) and her young daughter (Abigail Breslin), it is hard to know whether he is just being helpful or whether he has some kind of ulterior motive, as the young girl is about the same age as his missing daughter. Kerrigan makes no judgments about Keane; although it is clear he is suffering from some kind of mental illness, in some ways he represents an everyman. The talented writer-director lets the tale tell itself; there is no score, and he uses only natural sound and lighting. Some of the film was even written while on location in order to make it yet more realistic, which adds to both its horror and its glory. KEANE is like no other movie ever made on the subject of child abduction, a grittily authentic film that will stay with viewers for a very long time. [More]
Starring: Damian Lewis, Abigail Breslin, Amy Ryan, Tina Holmes
Starring: Damian Lewis, Abigail Breslin, Amy Ryan, Tina Holmes, Stephen Henderson
Director: Lodge Kerrigan
Director: Lodge Kerrigan
Screenwriter: Lodge Kerrigan
Producer: Andrew Fierberg
Studio: Magnolia Pictures
Reviews for Keane
A surprise, and a highly effective film, much more accomplished and less punishing than Clean, Shaven.
Kerrigan is as interesting a filmmaker as is haunting the margins of modern life, a place that needs some light. And certainly some sympathy.
A psycho-underworld tour de force like Irreversible or The Machinist, impressive as far as it goes (not far), single-minded but without enough on its mind, a gimmick flick.
That might be this phenomenal film's emergent achievement: Its raw hopelessness is its universality.
Lodge Kerrigan is one of the great, though largely unheralded, filmmakers of our time.
With its endless close-ups, it's almost suffocating in intensity, but is saved by Kerrigan's sympathy for his character, and Lewis' utterly realistic performance.
Only Kerrigan's previous Clean, Shaven surpasses Keane as a sympathetic study of a man unravelled.
An unsettling psychodrama that opens our hearts to a mentally and emotionally troubled man.
It's in that breathtaking humanism, its illustration of the way we connect to one another, and how brittle that social fabric can be, that the film touches on sublimity.
Kerrigan maintains that balance on the thin line between sanity and madness throughout his little miracle of a film by never wavering from Keane's wavering perspective
The daring filmgoer will see the film’s merits and, I hope, embrace it.
Mr. Kerrigan both gives us a life at the edge of the abyss and pulls off an extremely deft narrative sleight of hand.
The next time you see someone railing in the streets -- fighting a battle you'll never understand -- you may remember Keane and pause to reflect.
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