"Keane" is a low budget, independent film that provides a cinematic tour de force for both actor Damien Lewis and writer/director Lodge H. Kerrigan.<br /><br />William Keane is a man who experiences every parent's worst nightmare when he loses his young daughter in a New York City bus terminal. Wracked with guilt and overwhelmed by grief, Keane devotes his every waking moment to combing the area where she was last seen, accosting total strangers with desperate pleas to help him locate the missing girl.<br /><br />"Keane" is a highly unusual film in that, for the first half of its running time, its focus is entirely on this one character as he roams aimlessly around the city, muttering to himself in barely comprehensible fashion. At this point, there are no other characters to speak of, just random passersby whose paths cross with Keane's for brief, unsettling moments. Virtually bereft of dialogue, the screenplay, in the film's early stages at least, is almost entirely a stream-of-consciousness monologue of disconnected and disjointed comments, vividly reflecting the chaos of Keane's deeply disturbed mind.<br /><br />About halfway through the movie, however, we are introduced to Lynn Bedik (beautifully portrayed by Amy Ryan), a down-on-her-luck mother, whose young daughter, Kira (the astonishing Abigail Breslin), may hold the key to either Keane's redemption or damnation depending on the decisions he makes. For, when all is said and done, the film is really a study of a man's ever-spiraling descent into paranoia and madness - with barely a glimmer of hope that he might possibly be saved in the end.<br /><br />Lewis delivers an award-worthy performance as Keane, managing to create a compelling character out of a man who remains an inscrutable and often very creepy enigma throughout virtually the entire film. Indeed, at times we begin to doubt if his daughter ever even existed in the first place, which only increases our curiosity and apprehension regarding who Keane really is, what his real problem might be, and just how much of a threat he poses to himself and those around him. Intensifying the challenge for the actor, Kerrigan forces Lewis to endure a mercilessly intrusive hand-held camera which follows him around relentlessly and rarely pulls back more than a few inches from the actor's face. In a perfect blending of form and content, the movie plunges us into the chaotic world of Keane's troubled psyche, making us both a voyeur of and a participant in the nightmare he is going through.<br /><br />"Keane" is a success on many levels, but the film is Lewis' all the way.