Noise (2007)

Purely Joyful Movie!

Best movie ever!

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

Noise is one of those movies we've wanted to watch for quite some time but never got a chance. It surfaced on the Xbox video marketplace, and so we thought we'd give it a rent. But while the issue of noise harassment is one that hits close to home for many, the same can't be so easily said of the movie bearing the name.The reason for that is double standardization, and Henry Bean's Noise sins greatly in applying hypocrisy as one of its primary assets. Having expressed this sentiment, Noise is nonetheless a smart, entertaining movie doing more to promote understanding of the harm done by noise than most authorities ever could, and for that we heartily recommend it. It's also got Tim Robbins in the main role, and he's as awesome as ever.In this one he plays David Owen, a successful professional and family man who relocates to Upper West Side Manhattan from suburban environs. Initially, the NYC apartment experience works well for Owen, his wife (Bridget Moynahan) and daughter (Gabrielle Brennan). Over time, though, he begins to get increasingly irritated with car alarms going off unattended, to the point of literally ruining his life. Precipitated by this trauma, and by the indifference to his plight offered by those around him, a transformation occurs, one in which docile David Owen becomes a rampaging anti-noise vigilante with no qualms over taking matters into his own hands.But this is where Bean and his movie verge into hypocrisy-land. While the main character crusades against noise makers, he only seems to care about inadvertent machine-generated noise like alarms and backup beepers. Yet, his own wife is shown to be a chamber musician who regularly holds recitals in their living room. Are we certain the neighbors approve? Therefore, the overt conduct of this film is too limited in scope to a specific kind of noise, while perhaps tacitly endorsing a much more malicious form causing misery to millions.Later the story does acknowledge the individual nature of suffering from noise – the protagonist encounters those who complain about manhole covers, drum playing neighbors, boomboxes and other problems. He also hooks up with one of the noise makers, done by lovely Margarita Levieva, who becomes an unlikely ally in struggle to get city authorities to recognize the plight of the noise-terrorized citizenry. This leads to a borderline-racist parody of Mayor Bloomberg done by an overly smug William Hurt.In showcasing a progressive struggle, the movie does a lot of good – there's a very efficient portrayal of the uncaring legal system's impotence in enforcing noise regulations, something that needs to be shown if change is ever to materialize. Owen ends up achieving a modest victory, and the movie concludes on a positive, satisfying note.Noise goes by quickly and says quite a bit for its modest timespan. Tim Robbins, as usual, does a wonderful job as a person suffering from torture at the hands of stupid, monolithic factors he can't control in a world that no longer bothers with traditional civilities. Anyone who's ever been in that situation will see themselves in Robbins' character right away.The narrow scope Noise maintains most of the time, the hypocrisy and the mere token mention of the broader issue of noise, however, take away from the sense of achievement here. As it stands, the film comes too close to discussing a mere pet peeve rather than a far reaching social sickness, but even so, this is one movie you should watch.

MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS:I immediately felt for the subject as I read the back cover of the DVD. A man out to put a stop to noise in New York! Love the premise.And the movie started great. As a student of screen writing, I followed the form great in the beginning. This was a story about a man with not one, but two problems. He hated noise, and he was dealing with it poorly. Constantly he would be trying to eradicate it, but it would only get him into trouble. He would then try another method, that wound up getting him into even more trouble. I felt with his cause, and his mission and all his obstacles. But then, as most common, midway through, the movie lost its pace. Mostly due to a weak second act, where his goal vanished in the place of a "romantic" subplot that had no effect or relevance to the story whatsoever. Furthermore the little goal he was still pursuing had little opposition, so those 20 minutes felt like 40 minutes! Horrible.Luckily the movie ends great, with an escalation and battle that could have made the movie great, if it wasn't for the weaker second part.I almost feel like, making a new edit of the movie, but the thing is it wouldn't be possible, as the problem lies with the script.The rewrite I would do would entail David pursuing his goal of getting signatures, with MUCH opposition, almost to the point that he is about to loose faith that it is even possible. And then he struggles some more, until he finally succeeds, only to realize that it has NO effect as the mayor has made the charter revision, that nullifies their petition. THEN it would have been a death blow to him. And THEN his actions in the last parts of the movie, would have made more sense.Too bad they didn't revise the script one last time. Oh well, it was a nice movie anyway.

I picked this movie because I like Tim Robbins. The premise of the movie sounded interesting. While conflicts make for good movies, this one left me somewhat hanging. If he HATES all the noise, move away. But as one character said: You LOVE to HATE the noise. what I didn't understand was the threesome with the other girl... What was that about and what did it have to do with the plot? I'm sure there could have been another way to introduce this girl and have her do her "inner beauty" monologue.... Maybe I didn't fully "get" the movie and all it's ideas. It was interesting, though for the most part and I liked the ending. But it's definitely a DVD rental kinda of movie.

Writer/Director Henry Bean's Noise isn't a perfect film, but that didn't stop me from enjoying it. Had Bean been able to even out the tone and style he would have easily one-upped his first effort, Ryan Gosling's coming out party, The Believer. But, as it is, Noise cheats itself out of being thought provoking and intelligent by indulging in random flights of fancy: self indulgent editing techniques (multiplying split screens), awkward shifts into broad humor and a handful of other scenes too pat for their own good.But what's behind Noise is an important issue I can't ever remember being addressed in a film before: noise pollution. Bean doesn't just gloss it over and make it a one-dimensional villain, he fleshes out the issues on many ideological levels. At the heart of these themes is Hegel's concept of freedom: the notion of the soul as having a higher or fuller kind of reality than inanimate objects possess. In other words, people matter more than cars with blaring alarms. These themes are filtered through David Owen (Tim Robbins), a successful husband and father who has become obsessed with silencing New York City's car alarms, burglar alarms and any other form of oppressive noise pollution. David's reasoning is sane (even if his actions are not) and if you live in a city, you can't help but sympathize with his plight and also feel a sense of wish fulfillment as he bashes in the windows of offending cars.David's increasing criminal/vigilante actions are the manifestation of what he defines as "impotence." By this he refers to the overall impotence he feels at not being able to do anything about all the things that are wrong with the world. His wife encourages him to just accept the world as is, but he refuses to, and his resultant actions not only lead him to jail, but to the collapse of his marriage and loss of his job. Instead of things spiraling into a dark abyss, fate steps in and leads David down a different path. He meets Ekaterina (Margarita Levieva) who inspires him to package his rage into a proactive and civilized manner, that ultimately allows him to deal with his issues and get his life back in order.The bottom line is, we live in a world where personal freedoms have outgrown any sense of responsibility to being considerate of those around you. The result is a world where dogs bark and $hit freely, car alarms chirp unattended, children are free to cry, scream and throw tantrums, and no one really cares who suffers as a result. Sadly, there is little or no recourse to this problem and it is hard not to feel like David, impotent and frustrated by this affront to the quality of our lives. Noise pollution is a very real issue, a problem that affects the quality of millions of people's lives and I'm glad someone made a film about it since my silent suffering now has a voice, albeit an imperfect one.http://eattheblinds.blogspot.com/