Keane (2004)This is a one man show all the way, and young, slightly crazed father played by Damian Lewis gives it his intense best. Almost nothing happens for 100 minutes, nothing in the sense of plot development, so it really is up to Lewis to make his troubles come alive. His problem is that his daughter disappeared when he was with her in a bus station, and a year later he is still looking for her, trying to recreated the events that surrounded the mystery.But what strikes the viewer is maybe impatience, not with the narrative, but with the presentation of it. The movie ends up being a recreation of the tortured mind, the angst, the regrets, of this young father. And so the movie recreates that anxiety in the viewer. It seems impressive on some detached level, but it doesn't quiet work. The shaky camera, the constant striving and looking, the endless lack of progress, makes for unpleasant viewing. That doesn't mean it isn't interesting, but it isn't enjoyable. Oddly enough, many movies about terrible things manage to rise above their terribleness and the movie becomes moving, or enlightening, or simply aesthetic. "Keane" doesn't try to do any of those things.It would help if Lewis were able to create a more sympathetic type. You do want him to succeed, but you also don't want to really spend an hour and a half with him like this. When a second character, a young woman, arrives halfway through, it seems like a crack in the gloom, but then she doesn't become a major character. Her daughter, gradually, does, but only in a symbolic way--we never quite get to know or sympathize with the daughter directly.This is all more analysis than criticism, really. But it's a heads up for people looking for a certain kind of emotional drama. A movie like "Julie" has a filmic richness that takes an even worse situation about a child and makes it gripping. "Keane" remains in the mind and emotional troubles of its main character, and in Lewis's hands that's not really enough.

Be patient and give this movie the first twenty minutes and then you will be absorbed into the life of the main character William Keane. Keane's struggle with delusions while searching for his kidnapped daughter amongst the dingy world around the port authority bus terminals draws on your inner compassion for a lost soul. Keane's abuse of drugs and anonymous sex adds to the viewer's perception of him as a deeply troubled man.The movie opens with Keane recounting every moment, down to the seconds, of the day his daughter was kidnapped. His schizophrenic thoughts of someone being after him only add to his plight. When he befriends a woman and her daughter in the low rent motel he is staying, you start to wonder if Keane isn't darker than you originally thought. Keane ends up taking care of the woman's daughter, Kira, while the mom is away. You are on the edge of your seat wondering if this movie is going in a very dark direction. Instead, you discover that the little girl brings some normalcy to Kean's life and you get to see how naturally parenting comes to him. The bond that develops between Kira and Keane is sweet and innocent. Keane seems to need the little girl as much she needs him. Eventually, the mother tells Keane that she and Kira will be moving so they can be with Kira's father. Keane struggles with letting Kira go or doing the unthinkable.The performance by Damian Lewis is one of the best I've ever seen. The majority of the movie has solely Mr. Lewis on screen. His engaging performance is the only reason this movie works so well. The last scene is beautifully done and will bring you to tears.

Lodge Kerrigan's film 'Keane' offers an emotionally harrowing portrayal of mental breakdown, aided by some unsettled (but apt) camera work and some fine performances from its small cast, including Damian Lewis in the lead role and child actor Abigail Breslin. Fun, it isn't, and the mystery of Keane's grasp on reality is never entirely solved, as the relationship between the real past, and the past as he imagines it, remains unclear. The film not only speaks of mental illness, but more generally, of the loneliness of life lived in public places (motels, bus stations) by those who cannot afford, or hold onto, a private corner of their own. It's disturbing but good.

Despite the abundance of positive ratings for this film, I cannot come to endorse it. Ultimately I felt the film had a muddled message at best, which could be fine, but it seems content just to prod at the provocative and ride on the tempestuous energy of Damian Lewis. I'd say skip it unless you have the opportunity to see it with the director speaking afterwards, or perhaps in ten years as part of a Damian Lewis retrospective??Spoilers follow...So the film lurches into the madness of Keane's life...and we are seen with him questioning some transit workers about Keane buying some tickets weeks/months ago for his missing daughter. This just seemed implausible to me, already this ground would have been covered by Keane and the police and others...So right off the bat, I'm thinking that Keane is an untrustworthy guide for the story, but then he has some sort of news clipping he presses out. The film is confused, the main character moreso.His confusion however just seems to deepen, further alienating the audience from connecting with him. Thus his demons never become our own, we are shown no snapshots of him and his daughter (or estranged wife?) beforehand...his demons just serve as a barrier between us and him.And really he is all we've got in this film. So while others have praised the portrayal of madness/anguish/illness, for me it was shown as something so separate, so removed that it kept me at a distance from the film. I tend to think most mental illness, from Tourettes to schizophrenia is something that resides in us all in trace amounts, but in some unfortunate souls gets amplified out of control. Even then, there are likely good and bad days...and the illness has its phases.I guess we get a touch of that here, but really it seemed like just one eye in the hurricane...with the introduction of the doppledaughter as portrayed by the rather busy as of late, young miss Abigail Breslin. Even then, there is a strong undercurrent of tension as she is entrusted to our untrusty guide for a day and more some. You know shower scenes and movies have a bit of a charged path. ;>Anyways, I can guess that the statement here is that kids are abandoned or at risk more often than we know? But that kind of pandering to fear I find more deceptive than disturbing; but definitely guilty on both counts.The only other thing that drew me into the film was the coke-and-poke in a restroom with Tina Holmes (who added an interesting wrinkle to the death rattle of Six Feet Under). Here she is not really used for much, well by the director; her character is used a vessel to perhaps re-create Keane's lost daughter. Or is he just a sex-driven guy with no control...our insight to his malady make this a somewhat interesting scene. But it ends up being a disposable one.Well I'm thinking more about this film after the fact, than I did during. I distinctly remember wondering while Lewis was acting up a storm...and honestly for me too histrionic by half as opposed to others who've championed his work here...but I remember thinking...who was the last major red-haired actor? I wondered if they are less likely to make it big as people are hair-color prejudiced?? I did admire the risk he took, and his effort to carry the film basically on his back.Ultimately for me, this was a less than riveting film...despite its topic and talent. "The Sweet Hereafter" and "The Woodsman" are much more artful and complete films dealing with difficult cases of children in peril.4/10