May not contain spoiler but I don't want to take chances. This movie makes absolutely no sense as nearly as I can tell, and I would like someone to explain it to me. Characters come and go with no introduction and it's never clear what's going on. Of course, the protagonist never knows what's going on either, which may well be the whole point of this flick. It's all just a bit too minimalist for me, an old man with a sense of literary orderliness that comes from having read and studied writing from the 1930's and 1940's with the more rigidly stylized plot and character development characteristic of that era. But I like to branch out in ways of art and not close my mind to new ways of doing things. Still, the film makes no sense to me.
Reviews
3 Reviews
The Ragman's Daughter
(1972)
Well-done slice of a life now gone
13 April 2006
This is the last of the so-called "kitchen sink" dramas to come out of a very creative period in English cinema history. It was lost until just recently, but one of the great things about DVD's is that producers are beating the bushes for sleepers like this. It's extremely well made, especially the photography, beautiful on-location filming in Nottingham, England, and the characters are three-dimensional and reasonably likable. Time references are a bit confusing as it switches back and forth between the present and the past, something you'll miss if you get up to get another beer at just the wrong moment. If you like somewhat stately-paced movies with a lot of character development, you'll like this one.
Keane
(2004)
What happened at the end
12 April 2006
I never thought while watching this film, and the alternate version by Soderbergh, that the daughter never existed. Keane shows enough humanity and normality from time to time to make me think he doesn't have schizophrenia and has just been temporarily unhinged by the loss of his little girl, which, considering his own responsibility, would drive many off the edge.
It seems to me that by re-enacting the tragedy, with the neighbor's little girl and at the scene, Keane makes the first step toward recovery. Seeing that Kira is okay will replace the image in Keane's mind, or at least partially replace the image, of his own daughter disappearing, and allow the healing process to begin. What happens next is another matter, and I don't want to get too rosy about it. Perhaps Keane doesn't have the necessary strength of character, which may be what got him in trouble in the first place. But this is what turns this film into literature, that the protagonist undergoes a great change during a crucible experience. He's not quite the same guy at the end that he was at the beginning.
This is a wonderful movie, crafted carefully enough to maintain interest and suspense even without heavy action and violence, and absolutely filled with humanity.
Incidentally, I thought the submitted version was better than Soderbergh's variation, and I hope readers of these comments will forgive me for this heresy.
It seems to me that by re-enacting the tragedy, with the neighbor's little girl and at the scene, Keane makes the first step toward recovery. Seeing that Kira is okay will replace the image in Keane's mind, or at least partially replace the image, of his own daughter disappearing, and allow the healing process to begin. What happens next is another matter, and I don't want to get too rosy about it. Perhaps Keane doesn't have the necessary strength of character, which may be what got him in trouble in the first place. But this is what turns this film into literature, that the protagonist undergoes a great change during a crucible experience. He's not quite the same guy at the end that he was at the beginning.
This is a wonderful movie, crafted carefully enough to maintain interest and suspense even without heavy action and violence, and absolutely filled with humanity.
Incidentally, I thought the submitted version was better than Soderbergh's variation, and I hope readers of these comments will forgive me for this heresy.
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