Keane (2004)

USA
Feature Film
Writer/Director: Lodge Kerrigan
Cinematographer: John Foster
Cast: Damian Lewis, Abigail Breslin, Amy Ryan, Tina Holmes

The far from prolific Kerrigan’s third feature, a spare, harrowing and ultimately devastatingly moving portrayal of grief and/or mental illness, proves to be a brave and unapologetic exploration of difficult subject matter. The film opens with William Keane (a phenomenal Damian Lewis) frantically accosting commuters at a bus-station with a photograph of a young girl, (evidently, his daughter who was abducted at some earlier time.) His subsequent actions begin to cast doubt in our minds as to whether his daughter ever existed. He drinks heavily, takes drugs, has unprotected sex with a stranger (Tina Holmes), talks to himself and succumbs to paranoid rants. When he befriends a young mother (Amy Ryan) and her daughter (Abigail Breslin), we are forced to question his motives further. A difficult film, but a hugely rewarding one.