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

Pardon the story of "Noise", but open your ears to its resounding message on the city noise problem

Pardon the pun noise I am about to "audiolize" in this film review of the dark dramedy "Noise". Sorry if I am being too pun noisy. "Noise" stars Tim Robbins as David Owen, a New Yorker with a wife & a kid who is fed up with all the city noise mostly of car alarms and secondary beepers. Therefore, he embarks on a vigilante venture and wrecks the cars with alarms sounding off. Do not get alarmed but Owen becomes so obsessed with this that he actually creates an alter ego in him called "The Rectifier". But "The Rectifier" does run into obstacles in his "noise off crusade" by being arrested twice and irritating those in city government most notably the New York Governor. So it becomes quite a "David vs. Goliath" show for poor David. Even though when he does get arrested, not one accuses him of being "The Rectifier". Consequently, Owen's madness does create some domestic noise in his family life when his wife Helen leaves him and her daughter Chris starts to have problems in school. Owen tries to rectify his domestic problems but to no avail. Owen then meets a free spirit woman named Ekaterina who joins in The Rectifier's cause and helps him think of some political avenues he could take to fully solve the noise problem. And she even invites David to partake in some bedroom noise, which of course he has no problems with. Writer-Director Henry Bean's film is a very enticing one, and I do have to give him props for the originality of it; but Mr. Bean here was pretty much silent in developing a compelling plot structure, in both the writing & directing. Tim Robbins was commendable as Owen but the sporadic overacting did not deserve a buzz as one of the premier acting performances of the year. The supporting performances of William Hurt as Mayor Schneer, Bridget Moynahan as Helen Owen, Margarita Levieva as Ekaterina, and Billy Baldwin as the Mayor's Chief of Staff were of mediocre thespian noise quality. The premise and message of "Noise" is an important one, but too bad it got caught up in an "over the top" plot line which tempted me at times to turn off the "Noise". *** Average

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [France]

Country:

USA

Language:

English Russian

Release Date:

25 November 2009 (France)

Also Known As:

Enough Is Enough

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