Monday, August 07, 2006
Keane
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As the film opens we meet Edward Keane (Damian Lewis) wandering around a subway desperately searching for his daughter who may or may not have gone missing at this very station over a year ago. He comes across as desperate, passionate, crazed and ever-so-slightly psychotic as he pleads with any and all that he comes acorss to help in the search for his missing child. It slowly begins to dwan on us that there is actually more to this guy than meets the eye and we are soon drawn into a tightly wound character drama with moments of sheer tension that would make Hitchcock proud.The whole film is shot ultra-real, with the central protagonist almost always centre of frame (indeed, some shots look like they may have been achieved with the camera attached to Lewis himself) which gives the film its unnerving sense of claustraphobia that never lets up.
Lewis' performance in this film is so intensely real that we are treated to a character that is completely rounded and relatable. It would seem he has been given free-reign by the directors to explore the character to its fullest potential and then given situations to react to. His performance never slips and this is what makes the film so watchable.
The twists and turns of the plot are so well calculated that it seems the place where the true narrative is happening is inside the audiences heads. Indeed many scenes never seem to go where expected, as if director Lodge Kerrigan has crawled inside our psychies and tapped into our collective expectations. He does this to such an extent that when the film ends we are left almost abandoned at the completely abrupt ending and left to examine our own attitudes towards the potential situation. This is complete mind-fuck cinema of the highest order.
Beautiful charcters, brilliant acting, amazing direction, unparalelled tension. This is dark, dense, stunning, difficult cinema that should not be missed.
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# posted by Steve : 11:37 PM
