User reviews

This is an interesting idea for a movie, as it deals with a situation we can all relate to: who hasn't, at least every now and then, faced the frustration of being awakened by a car alarm that goes off for no obvious reason in the middle of the night? Here, David (played by Tim Robbins) decides to do something about it. He becomes "The Rectifier" - a guy who goes out and does battle against all kinds of noise - mostly car alarms, but also burglar alarms on buildings, leaf blowers, etc. He smashes cars and windows and becomes a sort of vigilante hero in the process.

This is an interesting study of obsession. David - as is pointed out in the movie - has a strange connection with noise. He both hates it and he loves it. He won't take the simple solution of moving to a quieter area, and in fact - after his obsession leads to him losing his family when his wife walks out on him - moves to a noisier neighbourhood. In that sense, this is about more than noise. He feels powerless to do anything, but as a vigilante he finds a way to give himself a sense of power. In a way there's also an interesting reflection on addiction. How many people simply can't get away from something they're addicted to even though they know there are serious consequences involved? Had the movie chosen to treat this more seriously - even if done, as it was, with a certain comic undertone to it - it would have been even better. Unfortunately, there were some problems with the story and how it was told.

Essentially it begins with David being identified as The Rectifier by a reporter who wants his story, so it mostly gets told in the increasingly cliché flashback style. The movie also weakens significantly when it introduces the petition angle - David decides to go for a petition to put an initiative on the ballot to ban car alarms. The fun of the movie was in him working outside the system, although I recognize the irony that ultimately came from this when the system was used against him to crush the ballot initiative. Still, David was far more interesting as a vigilante. There are also too many unnecessary characters who entangle David in unnecessary relationships (for example, the threesome served no plot purpose that I could discern!) and ultimately distract from the movie's basic point.

Nevertheless, this is both interesting and relevant to modern viewers - and their ears, even if the story might have been better told. 7/10

Noise is one of those movies we've wanted to watch for quite some time but never got a chance. It surfaced on the Xbox video marketplace, and so we thought we'd give it a rent. But while the issue of noise harassment is one that hits close to home for many, the same can't be so easily said of the movie bearing the name.

The reason for that is double standardization, and Henry Bean's Noise sins greatly in applying hypocrisy as one of its primary assets. Having expressed this sentiment, Noise is nonetheless a smart, entertaining movie doing more to promote understanding of the harm done by noise than most authorities ever could, and for that we heartily recommend it. It's also got Tim Robbins in the main role, and he's as awesome as ever.

In this one he plays David Owen, a successful professional and family man who relocates to Upper West Side Manhattan from suburban environs. Initially, the NYC apartment experience works well for Owen, his wife (Bridget Moynahan) and daughter (Gabrielle Brennan). Over time, though, he begins to get increasingly irritated with car alarms going off unattended, to the point of literally ruining his life. Precipitated by this trauma, and by the indifference to his plight offered by those around him, a transformation occurs, one in which docile David Owen becomes a rampaging anti-noise vigilante with no qualms over taking matters into his own hands.

But this is where Bean and his movie verge into hypocrisy-land. While the main character crusades against noise makers, he only seems to care about inadvertent machine-generated noise like alarms and backup beepers. Yet, his own wife is shown to be a chamber musician who regularly holds recitals in their living room. Are we certain the neighbors approve? Therefore, the overt conduct of this film is too limited in scope to a specific kind of noise, while perhaps tacitly endorsing a much more malicious form causing misery to millions.

Later the story does acknowledge the individual nature of suffering from noise – the protagonist encounters those who complain about manhole covers, drum playing neighbors, boomboxes and other problems. He also hooks up with one of the noise makers, done by lovely Margarita Levieva, who becomes an unlikely ally in struggle to get city authorities to recognize the plight of the noise-terrorized citizenry. This leads to a borderline-racist parody of Mayor Bloomberg done by an overly smug William Hurt.

In showcasing a progressive struggle, the movie does a lot of good – there's a very efficient portrayal of the uncaring legal system's impotence in enforcing noise regulations, something that needs to be shown if change is ever to materialize. Owen ends up achieving a modest victory, and the movie concludes on a positive, satisfying note.

Noise goes by quickly and says quite a bit for its modest timespan. Tim Robbins, as usual, does a wonderful job as a person suffering from torture at the hands of stupid, monolithic factors he can't control in a world that no longer bothers with traditional civilities. Anyone who's ever been in that situation will see themselves in Robbins' character right away.

The narrow scope Noise maintains most of the time, the hypocrisy and the mere token mention of the broader issue of noise, however, take away from the sense of achievement here. As it stands, the film comes too close to discussing a mere pet peeve rather than a far reaching social sickness, but even so, this is one movie you should watch.

David Owen is as mad as hell and he's not going to take it anymore. What he's mad about is car alarms. Car alarms that go off in the middle of the night, or when he's trying to put his colicky baby to sleep, or when he's making love to his wife, or when he's just this close to grasping a particularly dense passage in a treatise by Hegel. After years of putting up with this ubiquitous urban din and vainly pleading with the authorities to do something about it, David finally resorts to vigilantism, smashing out the windows and dismantling the alarms of the offending vehicles, even going so far as to leave a calling card in his wake identifying himself as The Rectifier. Soon the mysterious noise-fighter has achieved near folk-hero status among his fellow Manhattanites and become a true thorn-in-the-side to the city's unctuous mayor, played amusingly by William Hurt.

Sort of a dark comic, upscale version of "Taxi Driver," "Noise" is a rage-against-the-machine fantasy that chooses as its target the relentless cacophony of city life. David, who's a successful attorney in his day job, isn't quite as off the rails as Travis Bickle, but there are times when his obsessiveness begins to border on the psychotic. Is David suffering from mental illness or is he simply acting out against the impotency and inadequacy he feels in all areas of his life? Or does he just get off on hating and being angry all the time? Whatever the underlying psychological reason, once he establishes himself as The Rectifier, David develops a whole new outlook on life. And who among us can't identify at least to some extent with David's frustration, for don't we all have something that forever gets under our skin and that we would do just about anything we could to get it to stop? David just happens to be the one person to actually act on that impulse.

Written and directed by Henry Bean, "Noise" is a satire of metropolitan neuroticism performed in a minor key. Tim Robbins carries the film with his understated portrait of a man wound up so tight that he threatens at any moment to completely unravel. He receives solid support from Bridget Moynihan as the wife who can't understand why the man she married has suddenly turned into a raving lunatic, and Margarita Levieva as an attractive newspaper reporter who uncovers The Rectifier's true identity and wants to explore what really makes this explosive man-of-the-people figure "tick."

The humor isn't always as uproarious as it could be, but everyone, not just city-dwellers, should find something to appreciate in David Owens' amusingly extended rant.

This film is about a man's quest to stop alarm noises that plagues his city every day.

I must say I greatly sympathise with David. I live in a flat where opening a window at any moment (even after midnight) means that I cannot hear even the TV. Noise pollution is a serious an pressing problem but little people seem to be fighting against it. David questions why everyone is putting up with noise, while there are millions of people passionately fighting for other causes. To come to think about it, I don't know why either. Simple questions often are the hardest to answer.

Tim Robbins is great in this film, as usual. He is convincing as a stressed and impulsive man. His character is well portrayed, and I feel connected to him. "Noise" is executed well throughout, possibly except the threesome scene which I find rather unrelated to the cause.

"Noise" is inspiring as it enhances awareness towards noise pollution, and calls for people to fight against it. I hope one day we can live in peace and quiet!

The first few minutes of Noise demonstrated the promise that lies in the "basic material": a movie about a noised-out guy who took the law into his own hands. If it had stuck with the theme and explored it more widely, or broken it into various plot-strands, the idea could have carried a feature film. As it is, the picture is spoiled by its one-dimensionality, and pretty girls have to be roped in to - literally - sex it up. Anyone who has ever dreamed of smashing a sledgehammer into a howling car, or firing an Exocet at a passing jetliner, will fancy this title, but sadly it does not live up to its promise. Nevertheless, if you enjoy Tim Robbins, it's a nice outing for him.

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.

Yes it's a movie about a man's frustration with urban noise, but you don't have to be noise sensitive to be engaged by his frustration with something over which he has little control or power. The movie is about how a man works through his rage at feeling powerless, exploring different modes -- impulsive, destructive, productive, etc. So if you've ever been up against anything, you can feel for the guy. Its also clever, funny, playful, quirky and very, very refreshing. It's an urban parable and a bit of a cartoon -- think of your next door neighbor as a slightly deranged hooded avenger -- but has a feeling of truth.

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

I suppose there are lots of people who believe that their lives are full, interesting, deep and would make a good movie.

I also suppose that anyone who thinks so is wrong. Here's one. Some dullard got arrested for breaking into a car to disable its alarm. He then thought he could make a meaningful movie about it and somehow got it financed, with himself as writer/director.

The backbone of the story is this guys obsession, which boils down pretty much to anger management. Tacked on are two other story lines, one about a smarmy major. They must have had more planned and possibly shot here because he is played by William Hurt. The other side story is about a woman he spends time with after his wife kicks him out of the house.

In a competent writer's hands, these three threads could have been done well. As it happens we have some charming women in weak roles. María Ballesteros has a riveting 30 seconds with a talk about bodily imperfection. Its an almost Mamet segment about inner angels. But the rest of this is a huge waste, just noise.

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

This is one of those topics I can relate to a little more than most people as I hate noise & have no idea how those in big cities, New York especially how people get any sleep at all! It astounds me that people can stand all the noise out there these days. The basic plot of the film is that it makes for an interesting topic. It's too bad that's about it. Tim Robbbins is decent although except for a couple of scenes (especially with the absolute supermodel looking Margarita Leiveva) he didn't seem to really be altogether there. My biggest hope for this film is that casting agents will see the absolutely stunning & talented actress to boot, Margarita Levieva. She doesn't have a lot to do, but she is supermodel beautiful. Even when they are trying to make her look at more girl next door. It makes me sad that there can be people such as Paris Hilton & Kim Kardashian in the world w/no redeemable skills or talent, to have more fame and success than this talented beauty. I didn't care for much of this film because the script isn't very good, but am glad I got to see some new talent. I hope that producers & directors think about Margarita when they need a beautiful new actress to be in there big budget film. If they can make Megan Fox a star (c'mon she isn't that hot, & her acting "talent" is worse than made-for Disney channel TV shows) from 1 film, it should happen easily for her, as she is gorgeous & has talent! I'd recommend her changing her last name so we can pronounce it and make it more marketable. Here's hoping this makes her career, & if there is any justice she can pop up on some big summer movie or two in the next couple years.

when i found this i was in santa cruz, California. i had been laying down around a carport that house a few cars, maybe i should call it a parking garage. it seemed to me that there were multiple couples coming to and from the same vehicle at times. at some point in time while looking inside a video store i saw this and its summary at that time i thought that the synapses was addressing some mysterious hallucination..... which again appealed to my interests during that period...but now, I'm back in Orlando, fl. have mailed films with tim robbins, vincent gallo, and other Hollywood actors, but they are not on the DVD shelf in my parents home where i sent them....