Emma talks about Keane

Keane a 2004 American drama film written and directed by Lodge Kerrigan. Set in New York City, it focuses on a mentally disturbed man trying to come to terms with the abduction of his daughter several months earlier and the relationship he develops with a young girl and her mother.

When I first downloaded and watched this film with Damian Lewis as the staring role, I was very skeptical, mainly because I had only seen him in very different roles, as Nicholas Brody, Soames and Charlie Crews.  This I knew before even watching it was going to be something quite different.  However once I was half way through it, I could see why it was one of Damian’s proudest acting moments, from the moment we meet William Keane, you feel a sense of sadness he is lost, in many ways similar to Brody, Soames and Crews, another character that he plays who is broken.  Although as Keane goes on we can see he suffers with a mental illness.  Like many characters Damian has played, William Keane is another character who we can only fall in love with.  

The film begins with Keane, at the Port Authority Bus Terminal looking for his daughter who had allegedly been abducted several months earlier, he is asking random people if they have seen her, describing her to every person he sees, people are either ignoring him, walking away from him with a horrified look or they are politely saying no, he looks sad, lost and lonely, we can see he is an emotional wreck from such a short scene.  He then goes back to his cheap hotel room which he owes money on, he spends a lot of time alone drinking, taking drugs, and talking to himself about his ex wife and the birth of their daughter. 

Keane meets Lynn and her daughter Kira, who is close in age to his missing child. Lynn is having financial difficulties, and he insists she take some money from him. She asks Keane to watch Kira for a few hours, then calls the motel and leaves a message she will not be returning that night as planned. Keane reassures the worried child, who fears her mother has abandoned her, that she loves her and will be back.  His compassion for the child is quite overwhelming and by now I have probably cried about 2 or 3 times.  He forms a strong bond with the little girl, and takes her skating and teaches her how, once they finish Keane has a paranoid moment where he thinks someone is watching him and the little girl, we watch him become anxious and nervous and start shouting, but the little girl calms him down and makes him feel better.

When Lynn arrives later, she explains she was with Kira's Father Eric, who has arranged for them to move as he has found a job.

Keane is desperate not to lose Kira because she reminds him so much of Sophia (Keanes missing Daughter), he goes to her school, takes her without permission, and brings her with him to the Port Authority Bus Terminal, allegedly to meet her mother there and board a bus to Albany. There he sends her to buy candies, as his daughter had done several months earlier, just minutes before she was abducted. It seems as if Keane is re living the tragic loss of his daughter, perhaps expecting the abductor to show up again and try this time to abduct Kira too -as he was expecting him to show up every time he was visiting the station for all those months, imagining his plan and his schedule. This doesn't happen. He cries for his losses and decides to really get her to her mother. Kira tells him she loves him and he says he loves her too.

This is possibly one of the most powerful roles i have seen Damian Lewis in and it left me wanting to see more and more of his amazing work.