keane
Lodge Kerrigan's third released film (a fourth one was reportedly scrapped after completion), 'Keane' offers an intense and often agonizing glimpse into the life of a mentally ill father. The title character is brilliantly portrayed by Damian Lewis, relentlessly followed by a hand-held camera which hardly loses sight of him during the whole film.
The story is ambiguous in its documentary-like realism. A clearly disturbed man wanders around a New York bus station looking for his abducted daughter. As we follow him around the streets and transportation hubs of the city, muttering to himself in anguish and self-medicating with alcohol and drugs, we begin to doubt his motives. By the time he meets a woman who has a young daughter herself, there is no telling what will happen.
But as a relationship, fleeting but genuine nonetheless, develops between Keane and the woman's daughter, it becomes clear that whatever happened before, and in spite of his illness, his intentions are good, and he would probably make a better father than the girl's ever had.
Never explaining anything, 'Keane' makes for some uncomfortable viewing, but is ultimately compassionate as well, showing a man traumatized by loss and guilt over his missing daughter. In the end, it doesn't really matter whether his loss is delusional or not - it is painfully real.