Keane (2005)

One of my all time favorites.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Disturbed William Keane (Damian Lewis) is frantically searching the bus terminal in NYC. He's broke and barely able to pay for his room. He befriends neighbor Lynn Bedik (Amy Ryan) and her daughter Kira (Abigail Breslin). He does drugs with Michelle (Tina Holmes). He's looking for his daughter but it's questionable whether it's real or all in his mind.Damian Lewis does a brilliant job as a mentally disturbed man. I love the scene in the bar as he tries to listen to the music. More visual cinematic moves can be done to create his mental illness. He needs to have hallucinations of his daughter and she needs to be on screen. It's also a bit slow at times. Otherwise, this is a great character movie.

I watched this film because I adore Damien Lewis ((Band of Brothers.) I recorded it and was glad I did; it was so harrowing I kept having to stop the tape. Don't let that put you off; the acting, from Lewis and from the seven-year-old girl who is his co-star, is heartbreaking. I don't know whether anyone else has mentioned this, but there is no music in the film. This was a wise decision by the director. Music often tells the viewer what to think and how to feel; believe me, this is not necessary in this film. The lack of music heightens the tension and makes it more realistic. The ending isn't happy, as such, but Keane achieves a kind of closure and it is beautifully done, without being sentimental. Stunning acting is paired with stunning direction. A masterpiece.

You could roll in a field of poison ivy and possibly have more fun than you will seeing this picture. Or you might try taking your video cam on a city stroll and pairing up with somebody who's agitated and talking to himself. This should give you a fair idea of "Keane" in a NUTshell. Damian Lewis, the star, does a creditable job portraying a churning, distracted mind; he'd be admitted to any psych ward in record time. But what I rent films for, ordinarily, is satisfaction and entertainment, so this did not serve my particular purpose. If you enjoy watching a guy rocking with what may be tardive dyskinesia and trying to drown out auditory hallucinations with loud music, this will be your cuppa. I would like to see this rather fine actor in something more appealing, as someone other than the heavy or a person of questionable mental or moral faculties.

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