Original Cinemaniac

Lodge Kerrigan’s Electrifying Keane

            A new 4K restoration of a brilliant 2005 film by one of my favorite directors- Lodge KerriganKeane is getting a run at Film At Lincoln Center opening August 19 and if you’ve never seen it you are really missing something unforgettable, nightmarish and great.

            A disturbed father William Keane (Damian Lewis) haunts the bowls of Port Authority in New York City, stopping travelers and frantically asking if they’ve seen his daughter, who, tragically, was abducted over a year ago. 

            Lodge Kerrigan’s devastating, feverishly intense, film is similar in spirit to his harrowing Clean, Shaven– burrowing into a disordered mind and letting the audience see through the man’s tortured, manic, eyes.

             A chance encounter with a down-on-her-luck mom (glorious Amy Ryan) and her daughter (Abigail Breslin) at the flophouse hotel he’s holed up in only amplifies Keane’s desperation and loss. My nerves were totally fried by the end, but Lewis’s performance is so raw and compelling you can’t avert your eyes for a moment.