It’s been a strong year for US indies – The Squid And The Whale, Junebug, Forty Shades Of Blue, Brick – and now the eventual release of this compelling 2004 character study from writer/ director Lodge H Kerrigan.
We first meet William Keane (Damian Lewis) in New York’s Port Authority bus terminal, where he’s frantically showing a newspaper clipping about a missing girl to passers-by. His own daughter was apparently abducted from that location months earlier and his feelings of guilt, paranoia and recrimination are jeopardising his sanity.
Together with Lewis’ riveting central performance, much of Keane’s power derives from its intensely naturalistic style, favouring stifling close-ups, long unbroken takes, downbeat New York locations and real compassion for an individual struggling to survive on society’s margins. Recommended.
