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Contains strong language, hard drug use and moderate sex
A strong year for American independent cinema continues with the release of this fiercely compelling character study from writer/director Lodge Kerrigan. Keane focuses on a psychologically troubled individual (played by British actor Damian Lewis), whose six-year-old daughter was abducted in a public place several months earlier. In a manner reminiscent of the Dardenne brothers' films, Kerrigan displays genuine compassion towards those struggling to survive on society's margins.
We first meet the title character William Keane (Lewis) in New York's Port Authority bus terminal, where he's frantically showing a newspaper clipping about a missing girl to staff and passers-by. This apparently was the location from which his own child was snatched, and his feelings of guilt, paranoia and recrimination are jeopardising his sanity. Will getting to know a mother (Amy Ryan) and her young girl Kira (Abigail Breslin), who are staying in his seedy New Jersey motel, salve his anguish?
"CLAUSTROPHOBIC, HAND-HELD CLOSE-UPS"
Together with Lewis' riveting central performance, much of Keane's power derives from its intensely naturalistic style. Kerrigan sticks tight to his protagonist throughout the whole film, favouring claustrophobic, hand-held close-ups of his actors, long unbroken takes and authentically downbeat urban locations. Music is used exceptionally sparingly, which makes the scene in the bar where Keane becomes increasingly agitated to the accompaniment of the Motown song "Can't Help Myself" even more memorable. Throughout, we're never certain as viewers of how reliable Keane's own memories are of his traumatic past.
