The Keeper (2004)

When an apparently exemplary cop abducts and secretly imprisons a beautiful dancer, a deadly battle of wills between captor and captive ensues.

Director:

Paul Lynch

Writer:

Gerald Sanford

Stars:

Dennis Hopper, Asia Argento, Helen Shaver

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Dennis Hopper	...	Krebs
Asia Argento	...	Gina
Helen Shaver	...	Ruthie
Lochlyn Munro	...	Sgt. Burns
Charles Frederick	...	Joe Cody - Man in Black
Alex Zahara	...	Derick
Alejandro Abellan	...	Burley Driver
Fred Keating	...	Mayor Watson
Philip Granger	...	Lt. Stone (as Phillip Granger)
Joe McCoy	...	4th Man
Angela Uyeda	...	Raven Starr
Brad Loree	...	Bouncer
Robert Saunders	...	Trucker
Charlie Gudgeon	...	Bus Kid
Garfield Wilson	...	Alex

Storyline

In Redwood County, the dancer Gina is attacked and her boyfriend is killed by a maniac in a motel. Gina is attended by Sergeant Burns and Lieutenant Krebs insists in giving a lift to her when she leaves the hospital. However, he kidnaps Gina and arrests her in a cell in the basement of his isolated house. The deranged policeman has a serious trauma from his childhood with dancers of night-clubs and establishes rules and punctuations for Gina while she is imprisoned. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Krebs is stalked by a local, Ruthie, who has a crush on him and wants to promote his amateurish puppet show with the character Deputy Rock, his alter-ego. Sgt. Burns is trying to find a clue where the missing Gina may be.

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Plot Keywords:

puppet show | stabbed in the stomach | underwater scene | shower | memory | 

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Taglines:

Life has rules

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Genres:

Crime | Thriller | Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence, language and some sexual content

Details

Country:

Canada UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

2004 (UK)

Also Known As:

El guardián

Filming Locations:

Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$4,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Peace Arch Films, GFT Entertainment, Studio Eight Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min 96 min (Ontario)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Goofs

When Sgt. Burns is showing a police mugshot of Joe Cody to Lt. Krebs, the words "Sacremento City Police" appear across the photograph instead of the correct spelling of "Sacramento City Police"

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Soundtracks

Save Me
(2003)
Written by Duncan Harding and Andy Duncan
Published by A7 Music Unlimited
Produced by Andy Duncan for 7pm Management
Performed by Colin Burt Vidler
© Fightclub 2003. Licensed courtesy of Fightclub

User Reviews

Not THAT bad

The beginning of this movie really annoyed me. Asia Argento performs in a strip club, takes a shower, and nearly gets raped, all without actually having a nude scene! Don't get me wrong--even low-budget potboilers like this don't necessarily need nude scenes to be good, but it's annoying when a movie relentlessly teases the viewer with the promise of nudity but doesn't deliver (besides, it's not like Argento exactly has the pristine image of that other stripper-who-doesn't-strip, Natalie Portman--she's done nude scenes in movies directed by her FATHER, and supposedly had unsimulated sex on screen in her own directorial effort "Scarlet Diva").

After the beginning though this movie wasn't THAT bad. For once, we have a movie with a believable stalker in Dennis Hopper. It's really stupid how in Hollywood movies stalkers always seem to be young, beautiful women (Erica Christensen, Rebecca DeMornay, Alicia Silverstone, ad infinitum), the people who in real life are much more likely to be the ones being stalked. And Hopper's performance as "Deputy Rock" is uncharacteristically subdued and psychologically nuanced. He isn't primarily interested in Argento for sex (although that element is there), but keeps her in a cage in what he views as an effort to protect her. He really is the straight-arrow cop he appears to be, just to a completely psychotic extent. I also liked Lochlyn Munro as the good guy cop and Helen Shaver as the woman producing an anti-drug show with Deputy Rock (who turns out to be just as crazy as he is). Which brings us back to Argento, who is probably the weakest link here, but she's certainly not awful. It's refreshing, for instance, that while she eventually fights back, she doesn't completely turn into the butt-kicking babe dispatching the villain with a stupid one-liner (a stereotype every bit as annoying as the old-fashioned "damsel in distress"--and even more unrealistic). Her character obviously feels morally compromised as a stripper and rape victim even before she's taken prisoner, and she has to overcome this as well as her captor. Argento can believably play a morally compromised character better than most big-name American actresses, so she's well suited for the role at least (even if she never does get around to actually taking her clothes off).