Well Deserved Praise

Too much of everything

Don't Believe the Hype

A very feeble attempt at affirmatie action

To start off I just want to say that this man does not have schizophrenia. I'm not sure if it got mixed up due to the fact that he directed another film where the main character had schizophrenia or if people can't tell the difference between mental illnesses and just went off of what this description said. Keane suffers from bipolar disorder, this is a very accurate representation of what it is like to have a manic episode. Now to put all that aside- this is an amazing movie. The hectic pace keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout the whole thing but there is enough tender moments to keep things on an even keel. The cinematography is amazing and keeps us close to the character. I do wish the ending was a little different but that's just my opinion. I'm a huge fan of Lodge Kerrigan's work and if you can you should take the time to see a few of his other films. Like Gus Van Sant, he has a penchant for showing the lives of the type of people that are not usually represented on the big screen.

Disturbed William Keane (Damian Lewis) is frantically searching the bus terminal in NYC. He's broke and barely able to pay for his room. He befriends neighbor Lynn Bedik (Amy Ryan) and her daughter Kira (Abigail Breslin). He does drugs with Michelle (Tina Holmes). He's looking for his daughter but it's questionable whether it's real or all in his mind.Damian Lewis does a brilliant job as a mentally disturbed man. I love the scene in the bar as he tries to listen to the music. More visual cinematic moves can be done to create his mental illness. He needs to have hallucinations of his daughter and she needs to be on screen. It's also a bit slow at times. Otherwise, this is a great character movie.

I didn't know what to make of this movie. I'd heard so much about the film, and was really looking forward to it. Being a film director, I'd just completed a short drama (Open Secrets) about mental illness, so was keen to see how this subject would receive the big screen feature length treatment.I found the protagonist's acting first rate, and was totally immersed in his realism. But I must admit I found the plodding narrative and sudden plot twists a bit strange. For instance, he exhibited all the manic behaviour of a typical bi-polar individual, then as soon as he met the lady with the young girl in the hotel, his behaviour became charming and sensitive. I've done a lot of research into mental illness for my short film, and I know that mental patients on a 'high' do not become "normal" by simply switching their illness 'off'. Mental illness is not something that can be flicked on and off randomly by the individual concerned and yet here I found that to be the case here. The protagonist would became crazed with mania, then suddenly in the next scene he would be contrite and mellow.Top marks to the film-makers though for a brave attempt at a difficult topic, though. The film looks beautiful, with great cinematography and editing. I felt that the script was where it could have been improved upon. Perhaps the actor's performance was improvised, in which case it was an excellent job, but still lacked narrative clarity. After about half an hour of viewing the film, I began to wonder whether I could last the entire length of the movie.As I mentioned, I have mixed feelings about this film. On the one hand I didn't really "enjoy" the film as it has a weakish story, but on the other hand the film is a landmark because there aren't many feature length dramas about mental illness, and this one was pretty good in many respects. Overall, I was glad to have seen the film on cable TV, and not paid to see it in a cinema, as I don't really think the film fully justifies paying a ticket price.

After the end of the film my first thought was "What's the point?". And although the film kinda ends abruptly, I knew it was ending the moment Breslin says "I love you". To be honest, this film made me feel very uncomfortable, luckily I watched it alone, and i FFWD through the beginning a lot, since it is embarrassing to watch and every second you expect this guy to make even more of a fool of himself than he is doing. Of course, that fact alone gives away that the acting is great, and it really is. Of course Breslin is her usual greatness, but here Lewis definitely takes the cake. He is superb!This film looks low budget, but I was wondering all through the movie how much extras were used, and they were all extras, since none of them looked into the camera. I'd really hate that.The beginning is really hard to watch, even though I like indie movies, with a lack of background music, but it is just that the character Keane is extremely unappealing in his madness, or supposed madness. It is a good thing that the film doesn't provide a prêt-à-porter answer to it's major questions, like : Is he really crazy, is it a dream, is the Kira the girl he really lost instead of Sophie? Because, at one time, I had the feeling that there was a flashback structure, that the beginning was really the end of the story and that Kira was the girl he lost, upon which he lost his mind and mistook her for Sophie, his real daughter who is apparently unavailable to him because of a divorce. In that sense I was a little surprised, which was nice.All in all, a quality film which is not easy on the eyes, except with the non-nude sex scene. That scene throws you off, cause it indicates that he's not quite the deplorable character he seems to be in the beginning. In that sense, it is debatable whether Lewis is a miscast since he has this typical middle-class suburban image, and not an outsider/fringe/loner. That is puzzling.