Having hooked us with the tagline, director Henry Bean never seems to be sure quite where to run with it.
Noise (2008)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:34
Fresh:16
Rotten:18
Average Rating:5.1/10
Consensus: Noise starts with an interesting premise, but fails to build it into a cohesive whole.
Genre: Comedies
Synopsis: Henry Bean (“The Believer”) returns to the big screen with a complete rarity in American movies today: a comedy of ideas. David (Oscar-winner Tim Robbins) is a successful lawyer who can’t stand the... Henry Bean (“The Believer”) returns to the big screen with a complete rarity in American movies today: a comedy of ideas. David (Oscar-winner Tim Robbins) is a successful lawyer who can’t stand the fact that Manhattan is a place where it’s too noisy to get a good night’s sleep, listen to classical music, or even make love to his wife without disturbance. Every time David hears a car alarm going off, he swings into action. Adopting the guise of “The Rectifier,” he engages in acts of vandalism that satisfy him immensely but which generate no end of grief from his wife (Bridget Moynahan). They also make him politically controversial when he provokes the ire of the city’s arrogant mayor (Oscar-winner William Hurt). --© ThinkFilm [More]
Starring: Tim Robbins, Bridget Moynahan, William Hurt, Margarita Levieva
Starring: Tim Robbins, Bridget Moynahan, William Hurt, Margarita Levieva, Gabrielle Brennan
Director: Henry Bean
Director: Henry Bean
Screenwriter: Henry Bean
Studio: ThinkFilm
Reviews for Noise
How can you resist a hero who gets worked up because a car alarm disrupts his extremely tenuous grasp on a difficult but life altering passage of Hegel?
Amid the seasonal din of so many raucous summer blockbusters, Noise offers blessed relief in the form of a strong central performance, sharp dialogue and edgy humor.
Bean’s scenario is too inconsequential to take seriously and not outlandish enough to entertain.
everyone turns in a solid performance, despite some rather staid material they're working with.
An entertaining comedy with dashes of sex, all served up by a top cast
A presumably rectifiable dilemma for urbanites needs more serious treatment.
The black comedy Noise may be a one-joke movie but it's a resonant one.
I'd hate to live in a movie world that didn't make room for weird, imperfect little movies like this.
A tale of obsession and vigilantism cut with humor and a little Hegel, Henry Bean's Noise is a satisfyingly screwy New York story in which a successful businessman/family man jettisons all because he can't stand the cacophony on the street.
Noise has too many warring genres on the boil and too many thoughts jockeying for supremacy.
It's wickedly amusing for a little bit, but ultimately the film becomes what it's fighting: just noise.
A splendidly eccentric independent film written and directed by Henry Bean.
There’s an intriguing canvas here, but Bean paints in broad strokes and then just sort of gives up at the end.
The moral of this failed fable might best be summed up as, "Dude, get some earplugs."
The movie's real appeal lies in the simple but by no means inconsiderable pleasure of watching Tim Robbins take a hammer to a parked car as it wails pointlessly, deep into the night.
Like the car alarms it demonizes, Noise is insistent and initially attention-grabbing -- but eventually a little one-note and empty.
The movie has enough big-city wickedness and merry cruelty to keep things skittering unpredictably.
Latest News for Noise
May 11, 2008:
Trailer & Poster review ![]()
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