Movie Review: White Noise

Geoffrey Sax - Director
Niall Johnson - Screenwriter
Michael Keaton - Jonathan Rivers
Chandra West - Anna Rivers
Deborah Kara Unger - Sara Tate
Ian McNeice - Raymond Price




Careful, Keaton! You're about to be the victim of poor storytelling!

In some ancient Greek drama, an apparently insoluble crisis was solved by the intervention of a god, often brought on stage by an elaborate piece of equipment. This "god from the machine" was literally a deus ex machina. This term is often used to describe a scene in a movie where something happens not because it makes sense, but because the story needs it to happen. These scenes may be exciting for some viewers who don't bother to question things, but they're generally seen as a thinly disguised escape route for a scriptwriter who has written him or herself into a hole. In simpler terms, using a deus ex machina is cheating.

White Noise could've been a good film. I wanted to like it. I like Michael Keaton and it's been a while since I last saw him in a movie. He was quite good here, I can't really fault the acting in any way. Keaton's character is the portal through which we watch this film. He plays a sympathetic character who is as lost as the audience is. When bad things happen to him, we feel bad. When strange occurences begin happening he is confused but hopeful along with the audience. We are hitched to his wagon, along for the ride. He probably thought the last 20 minutes of the movie sucked too.

The movie opens on The Rivers' blissful marriage. Jonathan and Anna are completely happy, they then recieve news that make them even happier - a sure sign that something very bad will happen soon. Sure enough Mrs Rivers is dead within the first 15 minutes. A short time onto Jonathan's grieving period, a man approaches him and informs him that Anna has been communicating with him through Electronic Voice Phenomena or EVP. This is the term used for a means of the dead to contact the living through electronic devices such as cassette tapes, VCR tapes, radios, etc. They communicate through very faint images on VHS tapes, or faint voices buried in static on tapes. Working with this subject gives the filmmakers some leeway. After all, there are no steadfast rules for how the dead behave. Unfortunately, the film makers still have the job of making sure they explain things to the audience.

Anyhoo, Rivers hears evidence of his wife communicating via EVP and becomes obsessed with the phenomena, neglecting his job and child in the process. The film shows us the process of recording and interpreting EVP messages, and it is pretty entertaining for awhile. Rivers begins receiving messages and acting on them in the way he thinks is best. Eventually I began getting a little antsy and wishing the story would go somewhere more meaningful to the central character. After all, the movie brings up several questions early on and, no matter how interesting the onscreen action is, I eventually want to see those questions answered. This is where the Suck Factor begins to accelerate to terminal velocity for White Noise. I will not spoil the last 20 minutes of the film; that was the screenwriter's job. The movie had potential and intrigued me for a while. It just should've gone somewhere better with it rather than insulting the viewers.

White Noise earns 1 1/2 wombats


PS. This film also commits one of Couch's favorite modern Horror Movie Sins. Can you guess which one?