Keane
User Score
8.0 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 13 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 13
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 13
  3. Negative: 2 out of 13

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  1. ChadS.
    Oct 26, 2005
    10
    Damian Lewis is so convincing as a very troubled man, you can almost smell his stink when he cleans himself in a public bathroom. His scenes with Abigail Breslin are touching, but there's always that edge underneath their bond. After all, he's still a stranger. If you don't like William Keene, you're out of luck because he's in every scene, and director Lodge Kerrigan shoots him in close-up. That big Caucasian head suffocates the frame, but when William isn't having one of his episodes, we can see that he indeed does have a body. "Keane" is a borderline masterpiece, a living thing. In the film's opening scene, William shoves a photo of his daughter in strangers' faces, and Kerrigan's camera seems to mimic his protagonist's exasperated breathing; as like most people when greeted by a manic stranger, they walk away. "Keane" is an absolute triumph, and it's doubtful that there'll be a better American film to be released this year. Thank god Kerrigan didn't shoot this on digital video. He's talented enough to depict the harsh realities of the city on celluloid. By the way, Breslin is better than Dakota Fanning.… Expand
  2. KathyV
    Oct 3, 2005
    10
    Keane is an incredible film created by talented writer/director Lodge Kerrigan and brilliant actor Damian Lewis. The film is realistic, believable, inspiring and important.
  3. EdwardV.
    Mar 27, 2006
    1
    This is one of the worst movies I have ever wasted 100 minutes on. There is NO plot. There is NO suspense. You'd have to be a borderline manic depressive to even imagine that there is one. Riveting? Unforgettable? I have come up with only one conclusion as to why critics are using these words to describe this movie and other boring, empty, dreary movies like it. Movie critics are from Mars. Movie watchers are from Venus. If you perhaps think inside your heart that the reason i did not enjoy this movie is because I am not intelligent enough, then I say "Thank God for stupidity!"… Expand
  4. HansB.
    Apr 22, 2006
    5
    A good character study of a borderline figure. But that is all. Not very interesting and rather dull. The open end of the film should make it interesting?
  5. JonathanA
    Nov 6, 2007
    9
    Keane successfully fries your nerves. I was not absolutely happy with the somewhat-ambiguous ending, but it fits the character, whose life story and personality you are never, ever sure about. Thrilling in its own way because we don't know what to expect Keane will do next, but deeply sympathetic because we don't end up hating Keane either and even wish for him to do well.
  6. Richard
    Nov 7, 2005
    9
    Well, I skipped an employee appreciation picnic, barbecue and all, to see this because I know you can go to one of those any old time, right? But this picture isn't going to be in town long... There was an enormous line of NOBODY when I got to the box office, but five viewers suffered through this inside. It's a great movie, which took courage to write, act, and direct. From frame one until the bitter end, all I felt was dread; exquisite, complete and total dread. I'd never heard of the director, but now I'm an admirer. I won't encourage my friends to see this, but I'll never forget this film. It was a beautiful and astounding work or art. Kafka? Camus? Dostoevsky? I don't know.… Expand

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
79 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 23 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 22 out of 23
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 23
  3. Negative: 0 out of 23
  1. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Michael Rechtshaffen
    70
    A spare, claustrophobic film.
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  2. Variety
    Reviewed by: Todd McCarthy
    70
    Convincing as a portrait of a marginal man gone beyond the emotional pale.
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  3. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Michael Atkinson
    90
    Keane is a painfully specific figure but at the same time a totem, lean and frightening, for a morass of modern anxieties. That might be this phenomenal film's emergent achievement: Its raw hopelessness is its universality.
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