Customer Reviews

Keane

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3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

When we are introduced to William Keane (Damian Lewis) he is looking at the Port Authority for his missing daughter. But after a while his frantic behavior clearly bespeaks to other problems. By the time we see him drinking and having unsafe sex, we are questioning whether his problems are because of what has happened or causal elements. What is no longer is doubt is that Keane is suffering from mental illness. He seems to be more of a danger to himself than to others, but there is certainly a sense of impending doom to the life he is living. If it were not for the disability checks he has, Keane would be living on the street and if he ends up there by the end of this 2004 film we would not be surprised.

Writer-director Lodge H. Kerrigan ("Clean, Shaven," "Claire Dolan") likes to keep his camera in Keane's face so that early on we keep having the uneasy feeling that we are too close to this guy. But Lewis, who is most familiar to me from "Band of Brothers" and "The Forsytr Saga," plays Keane with what I would describe as a clear eyed insanity, deftly avoiding the stereotypical conventions of portraying mental illness on screen. So we find ourselves rooting for Keane, but have grave doubts that he can find let alone embrace any real sort of happiness. Then such an opportunity drops into his lap.

During one of his more lucid moments, Keane overhears that one of the other people at his flophouse, Lynn Bedik (Amy Ryan), is having money problems. She has a young daughter, Kira (Abigail Breslin from "Signs"), who may (or may not) be the same age as his daughter. Keane offers her money, which she is reluctant at first to accept. But he insists there are no strings attached; he has been in her situation and he just wants to help. Having been abandoned by her husband, Lynn is really in no position to refuse his offer, so she takes the money. When he does not follow up on the gift in any way that sets off alarm bells Lynn asks Keane to watch Kira for a few hours after school, but this turns into an overnight gig. The man and the little girl get along quite well, but that does not provide the comfort to Keane that we expect. This is why we come to the end of the film with a growing sense of trepidation as to how this is going to play out, knowing that Kerrigan's track record makes it clear he is going to avoid conventions and challenge our expectations.

When you go to the special features on this DVD you will not find deleted scenes. Instead, you will find an entirely different cut of the film put together by producer Steven Soderbergh. It runs about fifteen minutes shorter and provides what is pretty much a unique opportunity to see two different versions of the same film. I have done some minor examples of re-editing in the past, putting together the original openings for "Sense and Sensibility" and "Good Will Hunting" from their scripts to show students in class the different meanings that they constructed (this was before the day of alternate openings and endings being thrown in with deleted scenes). But seeing an entire film recut is fascinating. I do not want to get into details, but I will say that whereas Kerrigan begins with Keane confronting the ticket seller at the Port Authority about his missing daughter, Soderbergh begins with Keane lying in the median on the highway. That along gives you a sense of how the two versions head in decidedly different directions. So seeing this film twice means something on this DVD.

I felt stuck to my seat by G-forces of apprehension and fascination as I watched this film. I don't think I took a deep breath until it was over. The constant close-ups with handheld camera keep you trapped in the claustrophobic world of the central character. This effect is intensified as he talks obsessively to himself in a barely audible whisper, rocking back and forth in anxious indecision, his face a mask of distress. The brief moments when we see him at a distance, he is lost against an impersonal, noisy, cold urban environment, often not far from the steady flow of fast-moving traffic. The soundtrack has no music score, and the jump cuts from shot to shot and scene to scene heighten the disjointed, fragmented, agitated world of the film. The moments of release from this intensity are so rare and so welcome, you feel like you've found a brief calm at the center of a perfect storm.

The performances in the film are deeply moving, especially those of the central character, Keane, and the girl, Kira. Both are profoundly vulnerable, both literally homeless, and the tenderness between them makes your heart ache. Meanwhile, not knowing how fully stable he is capable of being, you watch with growing alarm as their lives become more intimately entwined. I recommend this film to anyone with an interest in the dimensions of mental illness, relationships between adults and young children, and the possibilities of human connection. Producer Steven Soderbergh's alternative cut of the film, available on the DVD, is a lesson in the impact of editing on how we understand character and story in film. Also recommended: Kevin Bacon's "The Woodsman" (2004), Ralph Fiennes' "Spider" (2002), and Serge Bourgingnon's classic "Sundays and Cybelle" (1962).

Lodge H. Kerrigan is a force in film who demands our attention. The fact that Steven Soderbergh produced this small, low budget work should indicate the quality of endorsement a fine filmmaker has in a relatively unknown writer and director.

Essentially a one-man drama, the 'story' is more an autopsy on the mind of a disturbed 36-year-old man William Keane (Damian Lewis) who lives in the streets and underground of New York, whispering to himself the data of a child snatching incident 'last September': we slowly get the idea that Keane's 7 year old daughter Sophie disappeared at station 8 at 4:30 PM. Keane lives his life searching for his daughter, watching, 'being watched', and in general appearing like a mentally challenged man on desperate treadmill. Keane lives in a rent by night hotel and at one point overhears a young woman Lynn (Amy Ryan) arguing with the deskman about her rent: she is accompanied by a seven year old child Kira (Abigail Breslin) and Keane follows them to their room and genuinely offers Lynn $200. 'to help them out'. Wary at first, Lynn accepts the money, eventually invites Keane to her apartment for shared take-out supper, and Keane warmly relates to both Lynn and Kira. At one point Lynn asks Keane to watch Kira for an afternoon and Keane and Kira enjoy each other's company in what results in an extended time due to Lynn's unexpected absence (she has been visiting her estranged husband arranging for them to reunite). Lynn finally returns and thanks Keane for his kindness and informs him that the two are departing the next day to re-join her husband. Keane asks for one last goodbye to Kira, a child he has grown love and who is the one who brings him as close to sanity as any person has been able. It is the manner in which Keane and Kira spend that last goodbye that forms the suspenseful ending to the film.

Some reviewers feel that not much happens in this story and I suppose that linearly speaking, not much does. But the spectrum of intensely difficult psychological journey with which we accompany Keane is extraordinary. Damian Lewis carries this film with a breathlessly credible performance of a man lost in the no man's land of mental deterioration, drugs, and alcohol. Thankfully Kerrigan never force-feeds us Keane's background except for a brief moment in which Keane recounts the dates of his birth and sadly unremarkable events of his life. The rest is left to the viewer to mold from the pitiful fragments Keane dispenses through his actions and reactions. The supporting cast is strong and the technical aspects of the film are well captured. This film may be too tough for most viewers who expect more information in a story, but for those brave enough to enter the mind of a mentally disturbed man and view the world through his perceptions and fears and needs, so brilliantly enacted by Damian Lewis, this film will stay in memory. Grady Harp, March 06

"Keane", the new independent film from writer - director Lodge Kerrigan, features an intense, interesting performance from Damian Lewis.

William Keane (Damian Lewis) wanders around the New York Port Authority Bus Station looking for his daughter. Mumbling and murmuring to himself, he intently searches for the girl he apparently lost some months ago. Exhausted and frustrated, he returns to his hotel/ apartment and finds he has been locked out. After paying for another week, he falls into a fitful sleep. The next day, the search continues as he deals with his apparent mental illness, his loneliness and his general sense of drift. The next day, returning to the apartment / hotel, he overhears Lynn (Amy Ryan) fighting with the front desk clerk. Lynn quickly takes Kira (Abigail Breslin), her child, back to their apartment. Soon, Keane and Lynn form a friendship, looking out for each other, in a way.

"Keane" is a very intense film for many reasons, but the most predominant is the camera work. The camera follows Lewis' every move as he portrays the character. Usually sitting just behind his shoulder, we become an active participant in Keane's life as he struggles with the unraveling strands, trying to hold everything together. Lewis makes the character's journey believable as we watch from such a close proximity. This isn't the type of performance where the actor engages in long monologues describing his feelings and emotions. As we witness his struggles, we learn little things along the way, things which help to make Keane an even more believable character. In his dealings with the hotel desk clerk, he asks if he can cash a check to pay for the room. Pulling the check out, the clerk looks at it and remarks "You're disabled?" Throughout the journey, we learn more about the disappearance of his daughter. As we get to know more about Keane, we have to wonder if he ever even had a daughter. He certainly seems to believe he did, but doubt begins to seep in based on his actions and his interactions with others.

After he meets Kira and Lynn, we see a flipside of living in such a place. Lynn is a mother with a small child, living in the apartment/ hotel until her husband can get things "settled" where he is and they can join him. During the day, Kira goes to school while Lynn works at a local diner. It is a hard life, made all the more difficult by the bus system they must rely on. Lynn is initially weary of Keane, but as she gets to know him, she opens up more. Kira is a little more hesitant, growing used to Keane in little doses. Lynn asks Keane to pick Kira up at school and to watch her for the afternoon, so she can take care of some business. As they are enjoying a lunch from McDonald's, she says "Are you going to be my mommy's new boyfriend?" This simple question raises more questions about Lynn and her relationships, providing detail to her character.

Perhaps the best thing about the film is that we never really know everything about anyone. Think about the people you know. Do you know everything about them? Of course not. This makes the characters in "Keane" seem more life-like and real.

The relationship between Keane and Kira is very believable. Watching his relationship with the little girl, we realize Keane has been around kids before, placing more doubt on whether he had a daughter or not. As they spend more time together, Kira begins to feel comfortable around him, opening up to him, treating him as a friend. She comes to trust him, which may be a mistake.

But Kira doesn't recognize this, as she is a very young girl. Her mother, on the other hand, should recognize that perhaps Keane is not the best person to care for her child, as they have just met. Given her circumstances, struggling day to day, it is more understandable that she would come to depend on a seemingly normal person.

The final scene of "Keane" is very powerful. Mirroring the beginning, we get a fuller picture of what may have driven William to his current obsessions. Thankfully, the film leaves these conclusions a bit ambiguous, leaving our minds to fill in some of the blanks. Allowing our minds to come up with scarier, darker resolutions.

If "Independent Film" were a genre, "Keane" would be a sterling example. It has all the tell-tale, perhaps stereotypical, elements found in many independent films; loads of handheld camera work (I can't think of a single moment shot without a handheld camera, yet the film seems `normal' to the eye), relatively few characters, natural, low cost locations, involving, yet small-in-scope story. Some people may be driven mad by all of these elements. Others will embrace them wholeheartedly. If you aren't sure which type of person you are, give it a try.

"Keane" is worthy of a DVD rental.

This movie is not for everyone. During the first 30 minutes of the film, the camera establishes an intensely intimate relationship with the film's schizophrenic protagonist, William Keane (Damian Lewis). We meet Keane at the New York Port Authority Bus Terminal, where he is obsessively searching for his abducted (?) 6-year-old daughter. As the film progresses, we learn more about Keane's solitary and desperate life of vodka and cocaine and are witness to his minute by minute struggle against derangement. When a single mother, Lynn (Amy Ryan), and her young daughter, Kira (Abigail Breslin), move into the hotel where Keane lives, he begins to experience some relief from his pain, but only temporarily.

This is a confined, drab, and uncomfortable film; and yet, from this murk and madness, we are invited to experience a startling sympathy with Keane, his humanity, and his quest for love and redemption.

"Keane" is a low budget, independent film that provides a cinematic tour de force for both actor Damien Lewis and writer/director Lodge H. Kerrigan.

William Keane is a man who experiences every parent's worst nightmare when he loses his young daughter in a New York City bus terminal. Wracked with guilt and overwhelmed by grief, Keane devotes his every waking moment to combing the area where she was last seen, accosting total strangers with desperate pleas to help him locate the missing girl.

"Keane" is a highly unusual film in that, for the first half of its running time, its focus is entirely on this one character as he roams aimlessly around the city, muttering to himself in barely comprehensible fashion. At this point, there are no other characters to speak of, just random passersby whose paths cross with Keane's for brief, unsettling moments. Virtually bereft of dialogue, the screenplay, in the film's early stages at least, is almost entirely a stream-of-consciousness monologue of disconnected and disjointed comments, vividly reflecting the chaos of Keane's deeply disturbed mind.

About halfway through the movie, however, we are introduced to Lynn Bedik (beautifully portrayed by Amy Ryan), a down-on-her-luck mother, whose young daughter, Kira (the astonishing Abigail Breslin), may hold the key to either Keane's redemption or damnation depending on the decisions he makes. For, when all is said and done, the film is really a study of a man's ever-spiraling descent into paranoia and madness - with barely a glimmer of hope that he might possibly be saved in the end.

Lewis delivers an award-worthy performance as Keane, managing to create a compelling character out of a man who remains an inscrutable and often very creepy enigma throughout virtually the entire film. Indeed, at times we begin to doubt if his daughter ever even existed in the first place, which only increases our curiosity and apprehension regarding who Keane really is, what his real problem might be, and just how much of a threat he poses to himself and those around him. Intensifying the challenge for the actor, Kerrigan forces Lewis to endure a mercilessly intrusive handheld camera which follows him around relentlessly and rarely pulls back more than a few inches from the actor's face. In a perfect blending of form and content, the movie plunges us into the chaotic world of Keane's troubled psyche, making us both a voyeur of and a participant in the nightmare he is going through.

"Keane" is a success on many levels, but the film is Lewis' all the way.

For almost half an hour, we sit on William Keane's shoulder. He haunts a New York bus station carrying the newspaper photo of a girl he claims is his daughter. He shoves it the faces of strangers. He mutters that he has to board a bus. He does, but once on, he sees something outside and demands the bus stop. He searches a row of semi-trucks and finds a purple coat. It's not hers. He bolts out into the middle of road, screaming for his daughter. He sleeps in the rain next to the Jersey Turnpike. The camera is as close as it can be to the man, but it has no idea what he'll do next.

Lodge Kerrigan's "Keane" is a focused character study that shifts, subtly but truly, into a high-wire last act, as the title character, played by Damien Lewis, has to subdue his schizophrenia to take care of a little girl named Kira (Abigal Breslin). It's merely one night and a day, but based on what we've seen of William, it'll be a minor miracle if he doesn't lose or kill the girl. He is not merely grief-ridden. He's addicted to cocaine and sex. He claims (to himself) to be divorced - at one point he calls someone who does not want to speak to him - and he uses his disability check to pay for his hostel studio. He imagines his daughter's kidnapper returning to the bus stop in the middle of the night. He beats a stranger.

We know who Keane is by what he does, and what he says, to himself, cannot be separated from his actions - thought resides so far outside whatever has grabs this man's soul and gnaws it to the bone in those delusional moments. So when he meets his neighbor, Lynn (Amy Ryan) and her daughter Kira, and gives them money and not expecting anything in return, we're surprised at his composure and sense. But then he's standing outside Lynn's restaurant, watching her. And then Lynn asks William to watch Kira for a couple hours. And then a few more.

Lewis is naked, brilliant. This is not acting but immersion, a performance unbelievable not because it seems like acting but because genuine insanity, until presents itself, seems mythic. Well, here it is. William's meager-yet-functional subsistence is shattered by varying degrees of mania; at his worst, he is trapped in a spy game with the imagined kidnapper. Lewis balances these freakouts with a personality who knows to wear a collar when he comes over for dinner, and how to wash a young girl's hair. The performance operates in a narrow gap between sympathy and disgust, not unlike Nicolas Cage in "Leaving Las Vegas." Before a crucial decision William narrates the facts of his life: The day he was born, the woman he married, the girl he fathered. It is impossible to know whether any of it is true.

Director Kerrigan's choice to jam the camera in William's face for much of "Keane" makes for a demanding, involving experience - this is how a manic lives. Shot from a medium or long distance, it would be easier to judge the character, but here we are moored to him. Contrast that with the recent "Proof," where Gwyneth Paltrow, suffering similar episodes, merely comes off as a whiny waif.

Kerrigan only develops two other characters, Lynn and Kira. He and the young Breslin do a particularly good depicting the quiet, sweet Kira, blissfully unaware of the danger William could pose. She develops a love for Keane, as little girls will, and the final scenes, in their own way, are white-knucklers, not so much for the girl but Keane, who insists on putting himself, and the girl, through a trial that mirrors the day he thinks he lost his daughter. Our expectation in these moments work counter our hopes, generating a sadness to accompany the tension. Real life is scarier when it seems beyond control. "Keane" puts us in that spot, and gains our admiration for its risks.

Saw this at Blockbuster and almost passed it up. Boy am I glad I didnt. The main character's performance is so authentic: his confusion and pain (as life spirals out of control) is palpable, dizzying, breathtaking. His friendship with the little girl was tender without any trace of Hollywood sap. I was glued to my sofa during the whole film. Hats off to the actors and director.

Liked this as much for the subject matter as for the way it patently copied the style of Jean-Pierre Dardenne.. I've only seen a couple of his films Le Fils and Rosetta.. I hear L'enfant is very good too.. but both of those films deal with someone in utter anguish with an almost religious moment of release at the end. The style is also similar. We are made to feel the perpetual discomfort through awkward camera movement and by the restlessness of the lead. Equally in these films comfort comes from the most unexpected source and always profoundly in the final moment.. these finales are also endings in the true sense for the principal character as they represent a release for the tormented.. Hard to say you enjoy these movies but it did move me, as the others had.

In some way it makes sense of the madness, that we are each others saviours.

Damian Lewis is so unrelentingly heartbreaking in this film. Watch it when you're looking for great drama, but not for comedy.