Review of Keane (2004) by Everett J — 23 Mar 2008

[i]Keane.

[/i]dir. Lodge Kerrigan.

[i]Keane[/i] tells the story of a man in search of his little girl, who was abducted from a train station several months before the film begins. William Keane (Damian Lewis) stumbles about muttering to himself as he attempts to uncover the mystery of his daughter's disappearance. He keeps up an almost relentless commentary about what he should do and where he should go. He walks into a bar and puts money in the jukebox; he screams over and again for the bartender to turn the music up but to no avail. He does a bit of coke and screws a woman in the bathroom stall at a party. All the while he's desperate to locate his child. One day he overhears a woman named Lynn (Amy Ryan) yelling at the front desk clerk at the motel he is staying at. He goes to her room and gives her $100. This begins a quiet relationship between William and Lynn and Lynn's daughter Kira (Abigail Breslin). Lynn asks William to pick Kira up from school and they spend the afternoon skating and playing games at the bowling alley. These scenes between Kira and William are excruciating because one knows how utterly painful it must be for William to endure the presence of a child the same age as his own would be.

Watching William interact with others is often a difficult experience. He doesn't necessarily seem schizophrenic but sometimes he acts in such a way that one wonders if he doesn't have some sort of personality disorder. Still, he is able to keep it under control for the most part when relating to Lynn and Kira. He only cracks once with Kira when he shouts at the patrons of the bowling alley and tells them not to look at him. William is a hurt man suffering the pangs of an inconsolable loss. His plight is hampered by the lack of evidence he has to go on as well as his constant self-castigation. He blames himself for letting her wander by herself to get a candy bar while they were waiting for a train. It is as if grief has destroyed his sense of rhythm and has left him out of sorts to the point where he often acts in an anti-social manner. He is taxed and dangerously close to losing his grip altogether. It is only the search for his daughter that drives him forward and allows him to continue to go on.

Damian Lewis in this film is a marvel. What he does isn't so much acting as it is embodying the entire essence of the character in such a way that he becomes a living entity that is profoundly real. With his chatter, his face movements, and his gestures, he conveys a man who has lost more than one human being ever ought to lose. The audience feels every strain on his sensibilities as an affront that is tactile in its urgency and wholly organic in its process. Amy Ryan is searing in her performance and brings a levity and grace to her character whenever she's on screen. Abigail Breslin brings her usual brand of cute affability to this role although she doesn't have much to do, as one would expect.

Overall, this is a terribly sad portrait of a man in search of some solace in the face of a horrific tragedy. The ending of the film involves William deliberately reliving the exact events that led up to the disappearance of his daughter. He seems torn between wanting to ensure that it turns out differently as well as putting Kira in harms way again to possibly force himself to relive the abduction all over again. The ending is ambiguous which fits with the overall mood of the piece. There aren't any answers here; there is only a nightmare never ending which William is subjected to with every gesture he makes. He doesn't find his little girl, he doesn't come to any satisfying conclusions about what was done practically in front of his very eyes. He does gain a temporary respite from the pain through his interaction with Kira but learns it will not turn out the way he hopes. He must continue his search, struggle with keeping his head straight, and return to the same parameters that robbed him of his child in the first place. Yet, there will be no salvation, no Hollywood ending where he finds everything he's looking for and more. This film forces the viewer to endure the same type of anguish that William is forced to feel at all times. This is due primarily to Lewis's performance and the tenderness of much of the script.