Matcollis This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

TaryBiggBall It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

Brennan Camacho Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

MBunge About 20 minutes in, I knew that this was going to be one of those wet noodle movies that's neither good enough nor bad enough to amount to anything. There's too many characters, too little plot and a lead actress who looks like she should be playing the smart alec waitress in somebody else's romantic comedy. It's not a thriller, it's not a relationship drama, it's not a look into the heart of urban dysfunction or an examination of personal degeneration. Noise is just a whole lotta nothing.Joyce Chandler (Trish Goff) is an aloof and colorless young woman who just got divorced from her middle aged husband Elliot (David Thornton). She's just moved into the second floor of a somewhat run down three story building, sandwiched between the ground floor furniture store run by a charming dude named Hank (Giancarlo Esposito) and an upstairs neighbor named Charlotte Bancroft (Ally Sheedy) who torments Joyce with loud noises in the middle of the night. In between Joyce working as a copy editor and attending a divorced women's group that turns into something out of China's Cultural Revolution, we learn why her marriage with Elliot ended and watch her upstairs neighbor turn into a slut. Then the film just sort of ends and tries to act like it's all been about this war of manners gone out of control between Joyce and Charlotte, even though they hardly spoke to each other through the whole thing.Noise is an adaptation of a novel, which is usually problematic. Any good book, especially if it's more literary than genre work, is going to contain far more than can fit into a movie. These filmmakers appear to have made the classic mistake of trying to get a little bit of everything from the novel onto the screen, with the expected result that none of it amounts to anything. Instead of giving us a single story, Noise tosses a bunch of individual chapters at the viewer and leaves you with the sense that you're missing something. I mean, this tale ends with a police investigation and introduces a detective character played by Adam Ferrara about halfway through. But at the end, instead of using that guy to wrap things up, a different and never before seen or referenced detective character played by John Slattery is brought on stage and he's the one who brings down the curtain. Not only does that make no dramatic sense, but the fact Noise finishes up with a dodge that tosses realism and logic out the window is only underscored by having somebody the audience has never seen or heard before bring it about.The bits and pieces here are okay. The direction is fine, the dialog is all right but unexceptional, the pacing is adequate and the acting is acceptable. Trish Goff is nearly blown off the screen by Ally Sheedy, but that's somewhat on purpose because Charlotte is an obviously unstable person while Joyce is unlikable and unexpressive. Making your main character unlikable and unexpressive is a pretty fatal combination, however.Noise isn't aggravating or irritating. It's also isn't interesting or provocative. Neither dark nor light, hot nor cold, this production is wan and tepid. I've seen some punishingly hideous films that were an affront to the Human spirit, but I'd rather watch one of them again than this cinematic non-entity.

Maggot-6 Presently it's late January 2009. Though I enjoyed "Noise" extremely, I was so impressed throughout -even distracted- by the way it evoked my recollection of "Crash". That "Crash" (by Haggis) released in the US in '05, (and not the '96 one by Cronenberg). I've not found any mention of any perceived relationship, derivative similarity of voice or plot, between these 2 nearly simultaneous films in any online review or comment I perused neither here nor off-site. My mild surprise has further intrigued me and motivated me to post this. Perhaps many more Yanks will see it now that it has had such a broad exposure via Sundance - yet I wonder if anyone other than plain 'ol ME has had the same thought. You have? Then please do post that up. Thanks.

castrobear Late Christmas eve (2006), flipping through the cable I stumbled upon this creepy film that totally captivated me. How is it that crappy so-called psychological thrillers like PACIFIC HEIGHTS that aren't half as intriguing as NOISE get proper film releases? OK, the film isn't great but it was a good thriller about having the neighbor from hell living in the above apartment. Ally Sheedy was perfect as the crazy neighbor. Trish Goth displays the emotionally abused downstairs tenant. The believability factor is a bit of a stretch but it works. The film looks like it was made on a shoestring budget but that also works in favor of the film. It's gritty, just like the town where the story takes place (NYC)...you'll think twice before ever moving into a cozy little apartment!This isn't Polanski or DePalma but it sure made an impact on me. Catch it on cable or go out and rent it...you won't be disappointed!

Jonathan Funke I watched this at home under optimal conditions: with the dimly employed music-industry exec next door blaring his stuff full blast at midnight in my rent-stabilized East Harlem building. (He's a nice guy and doesn't mind me banging away on my piano, so we're cool.) So maybe I'm unduly sympathetic to this piece, which admittedly suffers from insubstantial and generally unsympathetic characters, an insufficiently established final twist, and a host of rude and spoiler-prone commenters here on IMDb.Still, "Noise" is refreshing in elements. Key decisive moments are amply teased ahead, producing more tension than you see in a lot of indy "psycological thrillers." The accrual of stresses on a frustrated NYC studio-dweller ring rough and rudimentary, but true. The protagonist's choices are as much to blame for her decline as her antagonist's boorish provocations, and the subway shots and outdoor scenes lack the stylized glamour (and/or overly glorified dinginess) that mark them as false in mainstream productions. This flick is nothing if not quotidian in its trappings.There are also a handful of lines that really could have dangled like cigarettes from the mouths of European-inflected windbags in the publishing industry 'round these parts. But couldn't they have come up with something better than "Gotham" as a standin for New York Magazine? (If that's a spoiler for you, you probably need a Metrocard more than you need "Noise" on your Netflix list.) There is a smattering of homage to classic apartment thrillers like Single White Female and Rosemary's Baby, but they only serve to highlight Noise's thin budget, cinematography and script. A half-dozen lines, including the detective's final valediction, suggest the playwright longs for something better, and knows it ain't quite happening here. Give it a shot if, like the protagonist, you're stuck at home on a rainy Tuesday with a bottle of hooch and nothing else worth trying on Video On Demand.