Noise (2007)

A man who is being driven crazy by the noise in New York City decides to take vigilante action against it.

Director:

Henry Bean

Writer:

Henry Bean

Stars:

Tim Robbins, William Hurt, Bridget Moynahan

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Tim Robbins	...	David Owen
Bridget Moynahan	...	Helen Owen
William Hurt	...	Mayor Schneer
Margarita Levieva	...	Ekaterina Filippovna
Gabrielle Brennan	...	Chris Owen
María Ballesteros	...	Gruska
William Baldwin	...	Mayor's Chief of Staff
Eric L. Abrams	...	Security Cop #1 (as Eric Lenox Abrams)
Jessica Almasy	...	Crackpot Anarchist
Leora Barish	...	Tiny Juror
Michael J. Burg	...	Judson
Colleen Camp	...	Mrs. Broomell
Louis Carbonneau	...	Officer Moretti (as Lou Carbonneau)
Chuck Cooper	...	Judge Gibson
Catherine Curtin	...	Barbara

Storyline

In long flashbacks, David Owen looks back to when he lived in Manhattan with his wife and baby. The unnecessary noises of the city interrupt his life to the point that he takes a baseball bat to the windshield of cars whose alarms are blaring. After a few arrests, his wife kicks him out. On his own, he learns to avoid arrest and leaves a calling card as "The Rectifier" when he breaks into an offending car. Gruska, an enterprising young reporter, tracks him down. He tells her his story, they become lovers, and she organizes a petition drive for a ballot initiative to ban car alarms. The mayor becomes the Rectifier's bête noire. Can David fight City Hall and win?

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Plot Keywords:

noise | arrest | car alarm | female nudity | voice over narration | 

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Taglines:

The difference is I do something about it.

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Genres:

Comedy | Crime | Drama

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

Henry Bean based David Owen on himself. In real life, Bean broke into people's cars to disable their noisy alarms. He was eventually arrested and jailed.

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Quotes

[first lines]
David Owen: See this guy? I know this guy. He's a car thief. He knows that most car alarms operate by a simple electric sensor. Jiggle the door, you complete a circuit, and trigger the siren.
Car Thief: I've been stealing cars since I was 14, and the truth is, alarms make my job easier not harder. Say somebody is walking by and sees me fiddling with the ignition.
Car Thief: [in car with alarm going off] So sorry ma'am. These stupid alarms, ya know?

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Connections

Featured in At the Movies: Speed Racer/Noise/Meet Bill/What Happens in Vegas.../The Fall (2008)

User Reviews

Pretentious and contrived....

I've been using IMDb for a few years now, but have never written any reviews before. However, this movie so disappointed me (even with a modest score of 6.4 at the time of writing) that I couldn't keep quiet anymore.

Noise is the story of a New Yorker (Tim Robbins)who is so perturbed by noise pollution that he takes on an alter-ego as a as a vigilante, "The Rectifier", and vandalizes any cars he finds with a car-alarm sounding.

I take the name of the movie to be somewhat of a misnomer. Although there are one or two instances of other sources of noise being addressed or mentioned, the only true focus of our protagonist is car alarms. Car alarms, car alarms, car alarms. There is really no other focus. When the movie tries to tie other examples of noise pollution to the problem of car alarms, it seems to be just thrown in to give merit to the actions of Robbins' character.

Yes, we're all annoyed by noise. Nobody likes the sound of car alarms. Of course we all have that internal urge to take a baseball bat to a shrieking vehicle, and this movie uses that fact, and pretty much that fact alone, to sell this movie. I say 'pretty much' because there is also a blatantly contrived sexual relationship (including a completely needless threesome) which is obviously thrown in for those movie-goers who need such things thrown in in order to enjoy a movie. Honestly, it's eye-rolling.

Robbin's character, very shortly into the movie, becomes completely unrelatable. It seems less that he decides not to put up with the noise anymore, and more that by focusing so much on the noise he has begun to lose his sanity. The first half of the movie is essentially the story of how he turns from just an angry, car-bashing dude into this hero of the little guy, The Rectifier. However... the transformation doesn't take place. He just renames himself.

I could go on for a while. Annoying generalized social commentary comes in every now and then to add to the pretentiousness of the movie, and the self-satisfied smirk which never quite leaves Robbins face doesn't help either.

Overall, I think it's very obvious what this movie is trying to be, as it's pretty much shoved down your throat, but in my opinion, it fails in a big way. Just one guy's opinion, cheers.

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [France]

Country:

USA

Language:

English Russian

Release Date:

25 November 2009 (France)

Also Known As:

Noise

Filming Locations:

Mahwah, New Jersey, USA

Box Office

Budget:

EUR2,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$3,687, 11 May 2008

Gross USA:

$16,513

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$16,934

Company Credits

Production Co:

Seven Arts Pictures, Fuller Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

92 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1