Keane Review

"Keane" reviews

Movie

Keane

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2006-09-15 15:00:42

Provider

Review

Secretly, every actor longs for a role in which they are cast as someone mentally unwell. Not only are they are all but guaranteed to make the shortlist for the Oscars but, more importantly, they're allowed to overact. In fact, judging by numerous I-am-mad-me films, they are practically encouraged to overact.

Not so Damian Lewis, who turns in a charged and nuanced performance as the eponymous star, a man who's fighting desperately to keep his illness in check and lead a normal life. We first meet him in New York's Port Authority bus terminal where, increasingly frantic, he's trying to piece together the events that led to his daughter's abduction from the terminal months before. An event which, it soon transpires, is probably fictional.

Keane lives by himself in a cheap hostel, where he meets Lynn (Amy Ryan) and her seven-year-old daughter, Kira (the outstanding Abigail Breslin). When Keane is in their company he is relatively calm and controlled, having acquired the stability without which he is driven to walking New York streets in pursuit of drink and drugs. Or failing that, throwing himself into fights.

For the most part, then, Keane is as troubling as it is inspired. Will he recall the event that kickstarted his descent and how it will impact on his 'friendship' with Kira? It's to the credit of director Lodge Kerrigan that the film doesn't overplay the drama of such scenes, while Lewis – through whose eyes we see the entire film – is nothing less than magnificent throughout, allowing us to feel compassion for Keane while refusing to portray him in a sanitised light.