It is excruciatingly tense and so well-acted... An extraordinary film.

| Aug 26, 2022

It is like bad Bresson, if that were a possibility. All signifiers and no meaning; all tics and no truths; all mute emoting and no emotion.

| Original Score: 2/5 | May 15, 2015

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 21, 2006

One's compassion is both challenged and expanded by a rare movie that really does go its own way.

| Sep 29, 2006

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 22, 2006

Unshakably harrowing but deeply moving.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 16, 2006

[Lewis] immerses himself so deeply in Keane's psyche and skin that you easily forget this is acting, not real life.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jun 16, 2006

The film achieves a dramatic intensity that is both admirable and frustrating.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jun 16, 2006

A small wonder of a minimalist morality tale.

| Jan 19, 2006

When it comes to an emotional payoff at the end, unlike most Hollywood films, it has earned it.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jan 12, 2006

The role of Keane is a tall order, as he's onscreen for every frame of the film, but Lewis is just brilliant, holding our attention and ultimately our compassion for a deeply troubled man.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 12, 2006

Affliction has rarely been so sensitively presented or intelligently explored.

| Original Score: B+ | Dec 15, 2005

A psycho-underworld tour de force like Irreversible or The Machinist, impressive as far as it goes (not far), single-minded but without enough on its mind, a gimmick flick.

| Original Score: 5/10 | Dec 15, 2005

The entire second half of the film...is unbearably tense....Lewis, whose performance is the overwhelming center of the piece, deserves a large share of the credit for making the entire thing so grueling.

Full Review | Dec 15, 2005

Lodge Kerrigan is one of the great, though largely unheralded, filmmakers of our time.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 6, 2005

It's in that breathtaking humanism, its illustration of the way we connect to one another, and how brittle that social fabric can be, that the film touches on sublimity.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Nov 16, 2005

[Damian Lewis] is utterly riveting as a man who is all too aware that he's looking into the abyss and the scenes where he dips into outright mentalism are extremely uncomfortable to watch.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 2, 2005

The next time you see someone railing in the streets -- fighting a battle you'll never understand -- you may remember Keane and pause to reflect.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Oct 21, 2005

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.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Oct 21, 2005

With its endless close-ups, it's almost suffocating in intensity, but is saved by Kerrigan's sympathy for his character, and Lewis' utterly realistic performance.

| Oct 6, 2005