Noise (2007)

The Worst Film Ever

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

I enjoy a movie where the narrative is not spelt out in big gestures, and I can be satisfied with a movie that does not explain itself. I enjoyed this movie very much, but my 'reading' of it seems quite different to the general opinion. Spoiler alert: Did anyone else wonder why the Constable was standing in a railway station looking dazed and confused in the opening scenes. Is his sudden onset of tinnitus a defence mechanism against some act that he himself may have perpetrated? Why do we see him at home, spinning the barrels of his revolver and sniffing to check if his gun has been fired recently. What is his rumination about the true nature of heaven and hell telling us about his sense of guilt and regret? Why does the character we are led to believe is the killer seek him out and goad him? Are we in fact witnessing a face to face between two killers- one self evident and aware, one with a total black out of memory, presenting as a nagging and inescapable somatic expression. Have another look at it with this perspective and see if it rings true.

"Noise" is proof positive you don't need a big budget to make a compelling story with remarkably good production values and fine acting. I don't usually, but in this case I viewed the background "extras" available on the DVD and was impressed by how much the company did with how meager resources. The result is a credit to them. The acting is top-notch, but as others have said the plot is disjointed, doesn't always make sense, and has some loose ends. The script clearly had a hatchet taken to it.There is also some implausibility and irrelevance, such as why the boss would be angry at him for being sick and what is the importance of the tinnitus after all. Even laid-back Ozzie police officers must cringe at the protagonist receiving hearsay testimony in the trailer without so much as taking positive identification from the people who visit, and the idea of leaving a single officer alone in a location where he/she is vulnerable to assault ... and worse, as we eventually see.All the faults not withstanding, this is a film worth paying attention to, with good directing and some taut moments that are pretty compelling. The budget was undoubtedly less than the stipend a mediocre Hollywood star would command, so it is a job well done. Finally, the DVD lacks any subtitles, and some of the "Strine" dialect and accent is hard to get the first or even second time around.

The pros:Very good acting all around and superb directing from writer/director Matthew Saville who manages to keeps the viewer in suspense despite the film's slow progression and meandering screenplay.The negative:The film really only picks up some speed around half way by which time we had already struggled through some hard to follow dialog and failed to make sense of the direction the film was taking. Add to this an ending which felt a little bit tagged on and left me highly dissatisfied.Not really sure what to make of this film, It surely won't get a second viewing any time soon but I wouldn't discourage anyone from seeing it either.6.5/10

This was one of those films that, if you are Australian, makes you feel at home in it. A nice change from watching the British murder mysteries on the ABC, the European homicide series' on SBS, or the hour-long American homicide dramas on the commercial channels, all of which seem to compete to horrify the viewer.Horrifying the viewer has its own genre - it's called horror - and *Noise* isn't in it. *Noise* is unmistakably a drama, although the use of sound in the movie does serve to highlight (and overturn) conventional use of sound in cinema. Hence all the awards given for the sound.I loved the main character, particularly his motivation for being a cop. I think I understood his heroism at the end, even though it wasn't spelled out. I wouldn't have minded if all the unknowns had been solved at the end, but as it was, I thoroughly enjoyed the journey. Especially because it involved Nicholas Bell.PS. I think this film aptly portrayed the range of uniformed officers in Australia.