White Noise review

[Mr.HoRrOr]

Plot:When Jonathan Rivers wife Anna dies, he learns about a way to contact her from a man named Raymond Price, through EVP, electronic voice Phenomena. Unaware however, of what other spirits he might wind up contacting.



Cast:
Michael Keaton
Chandra West
Deborah Kara Unger
Ian McNeice
Sarah Strange
Nicholas Elia
Mike Dopud



My thoughts:I didn't expect much going into the movie, and after it was over, I got exactly what I expected.




Review:Michael Keaton plays an architect named Jonathan Rivers, whos married, has 1 son, and early in the film, we learn that he has another son on the way.
His wife Anna Rivers is a famous author. They have a great life, but tragedy strikes when his wife vanishes mysteriously. Later on, shes found dead. Now John is trying to piece his life back together after the tragedy. Hes stalked (sort of) by a large man in a van, who he spots outside his home, and at his work. John finally confronts the man, whos name is Raymond Price. He tells John that he has a way for him to contact his wife, through EVP. EVP or electronic voice phenomena is where spirits on the other side use static through a television, cellphone, or any electronic device to communicate with the living. After a few eerie occurances, one which includes his dead wife leaving a message on his answering machine, he finally buys into Mr Prices offer. The film from the start to this point really doesn't offer up many scares. It actually keeps things subtle and quite boring before we get any glimmer of intrigue which takes place during the scene where John visits Raymond Price and Raymond begins their second session. John thinks Raymond may be able to help him since they made a small bit of contact with his wife during their first session, and he also met a woman named Carol Black who Raymond helped contact a deceased loved one. John hears his wife during the session but also gets an earfull of a few distorted angry voices. Thats when Raymond warns him that sometimes during contact, evil spirits too try and come through. Upon being called in again for another session, John arrives to find Raymond dead. By this time though, John is obsessed with contacting his deceased wife, so he purchases some equipment of his own, and cotinues where Raymond left off basically. John becomes so obsessed with contacting his wife that he begins to neglect his son, leaving him in the care of his ex wife most of the film. He eventually starts getting messages from other spirits besides Anna, and the film spends about 30 minutes or so of Keatons character doing comp geek stuff and trying to cipher the messages hes recieving. He recieves a message from a young girls deceased grandmother and seeks her out, informing her of the contact hes made with her nana. A conversation on his way out of the girls home gives the film it's biggest plothole. She informs him that her grandmother died 2 days prior even though John tells her hes been recieving messages from her grandmother for a week. Keegan Connon Tracy (Final Destination 2) makes her first and only appearance as a claravoyant. Upon reading John, she freaks out, and warns him of the danger hes bringing upon himself. She warns him that going at this alone isn't a good idea, and that he is basically meddling with spirits on the other side. She also warns him about bad spirits, the ones that she calls "The ones who like damage*. However, John ignores her warnings and leaves. By this time 70% of the movie is gone and really nothing terrifying has happened. The film just drones on, bringing characters in and out, characters who could possibly help John, yet the character is written to be stupid enough not to accept or ask for help. Eventually though, he finally wises up and partners up with Sarah Tate after his wife contacts him thus enabling him to save Carols baby when her car crashes. John and Sarah are able to connect a recently abducted woman, and the death of Carol Black to both being clients of Raymond Price. Later that night, Sarah for some unknown reason flings herself from the terrace of Johns place, and barely survives the fall. John after talking to the detective whos also investigating the death of Price, returns home soon after to find his place trashed. It's also at this point that he manages to achieve a major breakthrough from his wife during contact, and sets out to a desolate area thinking it holds a clue to the abducted womans whereabouts. The film wraps itself up by taking a wild turn which negates everything we've seen previously. An entirely missing subplot is tossed in, some spooky ghosties which resemble the shadow demon seen at the end of Dark Castles "House on Haunted Hill" remake are added for good measure (guess they had to make up for absolutely nothing interesting happening during the other 98% of the movie). One thing I will give the film credit for is tossing us a curveball with the bit character who we see in one scene early, being in the middle of all that happens. I for one had pegged him as being involved the minute he appears on screen, but the way they connect him to the events that transpire would've made sense had they spent more time on that particular subplot, rather than mainly on Keatons character. Thus, this movie for the most part is one big bore. The idea was there, but it was written to focus too much on one character, while a very interesting subplot was tossed by the way side, and all of a sudden thrown in to create one cheesey ending. Added to all of this at the very end of the film, were tossed one final cut away scare involving Sarah. Sad to say, the set up for this scene, is basically the only good scare in the entire hour and 40 minute or so film.



Pros:A good idea using the EVP aspect as a plot device. Nice original score.



Cons:Not enough happens to keep you interested, and by the time you've sat through this movie, the ending isn't even a decent payoff. It's some subplot pulled out of thin air. One wonders had they expanded on this subplot during the rest of the movie, we'd actually have quite the interesting supernatural thriller. However, because they didn't, we got basically a drama with a ghost or two tossed in. The subplot expansion was also necessary due to Sarahs suicide attempt. It would've atleast given the audience a clue as to what the heck exactly was with her trying to kill herself.




Overall: A film that had potential, but concentrated on the wrong part of the story, thus just barely worth a view, but don't expect to be joyously entertained for the most part.