Keane (2004)

Inferior, Ruined

Damien Lewis is simply not the caliber of actor to pull off the part. Totally ruins it. From my perspective I see a guy who is 'acting' on screen. Hence he is not believeable. Steven Seagal could have done about as good a job. See Peter Greene in Lodge Kerrigan's other film Clean, Shaven for a truly brilliant performance. I'm very dissapointed as I thought this would be much better. May 12, 2008

hard to watch

I watched this movie, not knowing what to expect, i know mr.lewis always does well in any movie that he makes. he is the man of 1,000 faces, not needing any makeup, just his expressions and a man of many accents and voices. he does the american accent so well , that you forget hes british.
he has down the manners of william keane, a stricken father, whos strung out on drugs, alcohol,one night stands and paraniod moods swings, exhausted, looking for his daughter, that he feels its his fault that shes gone.
he spends his time, chasing people with newspaper clippings, asking if they seen his daughter,once, while riding a bus, he sees a purple coat , lying under a bus in a parking lot and demands to be let off, he jumps the fence and to pick up the coat and then punches the bus, then he goes into traffic and yells at passing cars, his daughters name.
at one point , in his mind, acabbie took her, he followed the man and attacked him, punching him and kicking him.
he sings alot too, especially when hes drunk or angry or scared.
he sits in hisroom, alone, reciting the names of his parents and half sibling and that he was married and divorced, had one child, agirl, nothing more is said.
at one point, it seems that he is calling his ex wife, who seems to have remarried and moved on and is avioding him perhaps, you know that he is a painter who is on disability but you dont know why and if he was ever on medication and if so, why he got off of it.
you never get to see any past life on him and you never get a good look at the newpaper article, i kept hoping for a flash back scene but there wasnt one.
at times he goes by he goes from normal,looking for work, helping to care for a little girl whose mother he befriended when they were going to be thrown out of thier room,taking her to mcdonalds, helping her with her homework, telling her that kids who call her names arent her friends and that shes smart, not stupid, who has become his object of fixation,to the edge of sanity, so much so that he breaks into thier room and lies in bed and holds the girls sweater,you have hope that whiles hes with her that he will be okay, but hes has an episode of paranoia that he tries to control, but cant ,the little girl is brave as roles are switched and she takes care of him.
her mother seemly abandons her daughter, keane is angry at this but, is determined to look after the girl.
when the mother returns, keane is cross but hopeful that she has broken up with the father, so that now he will have a chance to be a family man again, but instead, keane is told that she andthe father have found a house and that they are leaving, suddenly keanes world is falling apart around him, he asks to see the girl once more,but instead goes to the school and picks her up,takes her to the bus station, as hes already packed his things as well, including a dress he bought for his daughter,
he takes her to the same station and has her buy candy at the same counter, then cries that hes sorry to his daughter(?)then he goes and tellsthe little girl that hes goingto take her back to her mom at the restarant and hes crying, so she says dont cry, i love you, and he says i love you too and continues to cry. the movie ends.
March 19, 2008

Very french.. Unwitting angels

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. July 24, 2007

amazing character study

This one has you feeling uneasy from the get-go.. Lodge Kerrigans probing psychological portrait will have you almost completely fooled at times as you witness all the different facets of a man't personality.. a man who's bipolar mood swings and at times childlike innocence leave you nearly helpless in making a firm analysis of his predicament - and leave you completely seperate from your own moral safety zone.. You find yourself at times wanting to condemn him and sometimes you feel so much sympathy for him as to think that he deserves more out of life.. but isn't that the way things are? While Keane will make us question morality it will also leave us with the impression that there is indeed no objective way of actually judging a man - and indeed the need to judge is called into question.. January 30, 2007

Uncomfortable Delusions

I am still rolling this one around in my head months after watching it. I will admit this much: I am one of "those" people...you know if you are one. Myself and others who can sit on a park bench and watch all the "crazies" come out from the woodwork and do their "thing" and you just sit their with your decaf latte comfortable and secure in your own sanity and thanking God you are not one of them. Yep, if you are one too, you'll enjoy this movie. We are essentailly watching a documentary of a man who claims he has lost his daughter-that she has been kidnapped, missing, or lost. Is he telling the truth or did someone forget to give him his happy blue pill this morning? We are not sure as we watch him desperately search for his beloved daughter. The movie is moving, touching, sad, eerie, creepy - every emotion that makes you squirm and feel just a bit too uncomfortable with the main character. Some moments are poignant and thought provoking and others so drole you could accidentally swallow your tongue and hardly notice. I like Keane for the first 15 minutes, and perhaps the last 20 - the rest of the film feels like a coma I couldn't wake from and an uncomfortable viewing I wish would end. While I thought the basic plot was intelligent, I grew tired of watching the swift camera a movements follow a desperate man in a desperate-looking blue bubble coat around looking for a little girl that may or may not exist, only to be left hanging at the end, exausted from trying to stay alert to see some sort of climactic moment. (*Newsflash*-run-on sentences can be a symptom of having watched "Keane" too long...you begin to lose thought control) I still have no answers to satisfy my time spent on this film and I am still undecided as to whether this is a gem of a film. It's like the movie "Pi", only a search for sanity instead of God. In the end, perhaps a lobotomy would greatly benefit all characters. Worth the time to watch, but please drink decaf coffee and please remember Ativan can be a good thing. This movie is uncomfortable in everyway imaginable - Excellent characters but desperate to find a resolution. December 19, 2006

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