Keane
Director Lodge Kerrigan and actor Damian Lewis execute a breathtaking balancing act inKeane, an amazing film that will probably connect with a much wider audience on DVD than it did its feeble theatrical distribution. William Keane, played by Lewis, is an unbalanced man who shows up at the New York Port Authority one day demanding information on the kidnapping of his daughter. Well, no wonder he's unbalanced, right? But as Keane's odyssey stumbles on, we begin to wonder just how unstable he always was, and what exactly the circumstances of the missing girl might have been--if she ever existed. Kerrigan keeps his nervous camera within a few feet of Keane, so locked into the character's tunnel-vision view of things that the audience begins to share his lack of perspective. This movie is raw and startling in all the best ways, and it's destined to encourage post-movie chatter of theMementovariety. Amy Ryan is touching as a slattern Keane meets at a rooming house, and Abigail Breslin is superb as her 7-year-old daughter. But it's Damian Lewis's tour de force that carries every scene. Lewis, who made such a strong impression in the miniseriesBand of Brothers, never asks the audience to like Keane, or to understand every motivation. He's simply inside the man, and so are we.--Robert HortonOn the DVD:Included is a full-length alternate cut of the film by executive producer Steven Soderbergh, shorter by 15 minutes than Kerrigan's final cut. It re-arranges things considerably and has a slower-building start--an intriguing companion piece to a movie that invites different interpretations.--Robert Horton