Sun 30 Oct 21:00 And Mon 31 Oct 13:30 OWE1

by Sandra Hebron, Times BFI London Film Festival Programme, October 2005

Although we might wish that film-makers with the originality and talent of Lodge Kerrigan would have more frequent opportunities to make complex and ambitious cinema, the six year weight since Claire Dolan is duly rewarded with this bold, compelling film. Somewhat reminiscent of Kerrigan's first feature (the unforgettable Clean, Shaven), Keane is an intense, claustrophobic study of a young man struggling to deal with the disappearance of his six-year-old daughter, apparently abducted from New York's Port Authority station some months previously. Always in motion and always on edge, William (Damian Lewis) returns to the station over and over again, but finds no comfort there, or in the bars and clubs where cocaine and sex do little to dull his pain. A meeting with a young woman and her daughter offers some respite from his isolation, but here as throughout the film, Kerrigan builds tension and ambiguity, making us fearful as to how things will turn out. He's aided by Damian Lewis (Band of Brothers), on-screen throughout and simply outstanding as the grieving, mentally fragile William. With this compassionate, harrowing and beautifully filmed tale of redemption, Kerrigan reasserted his position as one of American cinema's finest contemporary artists.

Dir - Scr Lodge Kerrigan | with Damian Lewis, Abigail Breslin, Amy Ryan | USA 2004 | 93 mins