White Noise
Directed by:
Geoffrey SaxScreenplay:
Niall JohnsonCinematography:
Chris SeagerComposer:
Claude FoisyCast:
Michael Keaton, Chandra West, Deborah Kara Unger, Ian McNeice, Sarah Strange, Nicholas Elia, Mike Dopud, Amber Rothwell, Miranda Frigon, Aaron Douglas (more)VOD (2)
Plots(1)
Architect Jonathan Rivers (Michael Keaton) has little time to mourn the passing of his wife Anna (Chandra West) when he starts receiving signals from her. A faint sound of her voice is caught by Rivers in radio static on the night of her death, followed by incessant cell phone calls coming from Anna's old number. Rivers is convinced he can hear Anna's voice saying "go, Jon" to him in the resulting calls. With a little help from expert EVP practitioner Raymond Price (Ian McNeice), Rivers contacts Anna and begins a hazy dialect with her. From the garbled dialogue Rivers receives, he deduces that Anna is sending him to save the lives of people who are about to die. This joins Rivers, in his plight, with a former client of Price's, Sarah Tate (Deborah Kara Unger). However, meddling with messages from the dead leads the pair into a world of trouble, producing some startlingly anxious moments, and a spine-chilling forewarning of the possible consequences facing real-life users of EVP. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Reviews (3)
White Noise is just one of a million standard American thrillers whose initial potential is crushed under the weight of an inappropriate climax (see, for example, Taking Lives) and annoying digital effects (The Forgotten). The plot is thin and, with the exception of a few chills, there’s nothing much to it. You would be better off rewatching the thematically similar but significantly more meaningful and intelligent Frequency.
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Generally speaking, I don’t like ghost stories very much, but this one captivated me at the beginning. Unfortunately, the ending was pretty lame, but I still think it’s slightly above-average. 60%
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Risk of spoilers It looked like an interesting project for quite a while, but only at the end did I realize how much the creators had deceived the audience. Such a subject could have produced a thrilling atmosphere, but instead there was only one scare and a lot of padding. It is clear that Keaton is trying in the main role, but the insulting conclusion, contradicting all the previously mentioned rules regarding the appearance of the dead, ruins any slightly good impression. Moreover, when the ghostly villains also lack a point, I cannot give a rating higher than the already struggling 30%.
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