Keane (2004)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Biographies-Cast & Crew-Cast and Crew Trailer-Promotional Trailers
Rating
Year Of Production	2004
Running Time	90:00
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Lodge Kerrigan
Studio Distributor	MRA Entertainment	Starring	Damian Lewis Abigail Breslin Amy Ryan Liza Colón-Zayas John Tormey Brenda Denmark Ed Wheeler Christopher Evan Welch Yvette Mercedes
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$29.95	Music	None Given

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Unknown	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

   He catches sight of the man who took her. He follows him. He attacks him.

   Onlookers pull him off the man. No. He’s not the one.

   Keane leaves the station. He wanders aimlessly. Everyone is watching. He has outbursts. He is enraged. Then he is calm. He cannot find his daughter.

   Back at his hotel, he pays for his room for a few days more. A woman is there, Lynn (Amy Ryan), with young daughter, Kira (Abigail Breslin). She can’t pay for her room. She’ll be left stranded. Keane gives her money -- not because he wants anything in return, but because he wants to help. They bond. When Lynn has to leave town she leaves Kira in Keane's care. It’s clear there’s something wrong with William Keane. Is Kira in danger?

   Lodge Kerrigan is an underrated and, sadly, largely unknown film director. His Keane is a masterpiece. Obsessed with individuals on the fringe of society, he has crafted two brilliant films: Clean, Shaven, about a schizophrenic thought to be a serial killer; and Claire Dolan, the story of a prostitute who can talk to men with such power as to quickly find and satisfy their most intimate desires. These were festival hits but never found mainstream popularity. Working with Steven Soderbergh, he wrote and shot his breakout film In God's Hands, starring Peter Sarsgaard and Maggie Gyllenhaal, but the negatives were destroyed in a fire and the film was never completed. The insurance payout recouped costs, and Soderbergh promised to work with Kerrigan again, but the film was lost. Born from that loss was Keane, one of the best films of the past decade.

   Shot entirely in long takes, the film is set in the real world and never leaves its central character. We learn early that Keane is suffering from some mental illness, possibly schizophrenia, but it’s never openly discussed or classified. Instead, Kerrigan puts us in the same position as this man, which is both confusing and uncomfortable. We watch him struggle to find some trace of his missing daughter, and watch him go about his daily activities. We see him get violent, we see him take drugs, we see him harm others and himself; when the young Kira is placed in his care, we fear for her safety, but so does he; Keane is a danger to himself and a danger to others. We can see that, despite his outbursts, he might have been a good father. Like the rest of us, Keane struggles to hide his vulnerabilities and instead present a normal, acceptable face to the world.

   Keane is challenging, and it takes some time finding footing in the alien world of this person, someone we would normally not empathise with, and actively avoid. It doesn’t take long before our sympathies are with this character and the film becomes astonishingly powerful. Damian Lewis is convincing as William Keane, who will often appear charming and typical, then explode in uncontrollable rage. Lewis never slips out of character, and through Kerrigan's direction we fully empathise with him. Likewise, Abigail Breslin is superb, playing arguably the second most important character onscreen, and she shows a range far beyond her young age.

   Keane is beautiful, and it earns its hope through the maddening darkness. But Keane is seemingly unmarketable, which is why you've never heard of it, despite brief successful in the US and high praise from critics (including Two Thumbs Up from Ebert and Roeper). It received no theatrical release here and was ushered onto DVD without advertising or reviews. This is why I urge you to ignore the usual stigma that accompanies direct-to-DVD movies and arthouse films, and instead go out of your way to see this film. I cannot do it justice in this short review.

Video

   Keane looks great; the clean transfer is free of artefacts and errors, and is full of detail and sharpness. The film appears to have been shot on digital video, which here adds to the realism with a small level of grain across most scenes. There is little low level noise, with the blacks retaining strong detail throughout.

   The world is a dull place, rarely shining with bright colours, and it looks fantastic. There are no issues with interlacing or aliasing.

   There are no subtitles.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

   Although limited to only two channels, the soundscape created by the audio is deeply immersive and adds to the experience. The dialogue and effects are perfect, with no issues with sync or dropouts.

   With the exception of diegetic music, there is no music in Keane; with no traditional score, the movement and changes in atmosphere score the sound, and change the way we experience what happens around the character.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menus with Sound

Cast and Crew

Trailers - Pusher (1:41), Dumplings (1:38), Invisible Waves (2:25), Funny Ha Ha (2:33), Flight from Death: Quest for Immortality (3:04)

   The video is very good, featuring some seemingly-intentional issues with grain that add to the realistic approach.

   The audio is lacks a 5.1 track, but is very good for what it is.

   There are basically no extras, which is a crime.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall