Keane 2005

Critics score:
82 / 100

Reviews provided by RottenTomatoes

Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: The director is able to rivet us with this small story, simply because he observes it all with such a hard, unblinking gaze. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: It's an amazing piece of work. Read more

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Read more

AV Club: Read more

Richard Nilsen, Arizona Republic: When it comes to an emotional payoff at the end, unlike most Hollywood films, it has earned it. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: The movie isn't a crowd-pleaser, but it moves the soul, and that's enough. Read more

Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times: Keane is emotionally involving right from the beginning through its final frame. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: As good as Lewis is -- and he's in every frame of this 93-minute movie -- it's Kerrigan's astounding gift for addressing the wounded that demands celebration. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Keane, Kerrigan's third feature, is his real breakthrough. Read more

Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly: Lewis, in an astonishingly elastic yet disciplined performance, invests Keane with a richly ambiguous, heartbreaking inner life that's only at peace when he manages to form a tenuous human connection. Read more

John Anderson, Newsday: Kerrigan is as interesting a filmmaker as is haunting the margins of modern life, a place that needs some light. And certainly some sympathy. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: Keane is a movie you might see on a dare, and though I think it is brilliantly conceived, I wouldn't dare to dare you. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: Lodge Kerrigan is a director worth watching, and Keane is a small wonder in a season of big but deadly, brainless blockbusters. Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: Mr. Lewis, a highly talented British actor, displays a flawless American accent in what amounts to a hyper-Wellesian monopolization of screen time and screen space. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: Mr. Kerrigan both gives us a life at the edge of the abyss and pulls off an extremely deft narrative sleight of hand. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: Lewis makes Keane's paranoia our paranoia. Kerrigan limits our world to his world. And that's how this grimly shot, roughly felt drama pulls us in. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Kerrigan's films create worlds of personal obsession. Read more

John McMurtrie, San Francisco Chronicle: Lewis delivers a convincing, powerful and highly nuanced performance as a man who's fighting desperately to keep his illness in check and lead a normal life. Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Kate Taylor, Globe and Mail: The film achieves a dramatic intensity that is both admirable and frustrating. Read more

Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: Unshakably harrowing but deeply moving. Read more

Time Out: Read more

Dave Calhoun, Time Out: Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: Read more

Michael Atkinson, Village Voice: That might be this phenomenal film's emergent achievement: Its raw hopelessness is its universality. Read more

Stephen Hunter, Washington Post: A movie that puts you so far into someone else's head you may have forgotten your own name by the time it's over. Read more