CARISSA MARSH
Staff Writer
The tagline for this month’s supernatural thriller, “White Noise,” touts an intriguingly eerie theme: “The line separating the living from the dead has been crossed.”
In the film, Michael Keaton plays Jonathan Rivers, a successful architect who suddenly becomes a widower after his wife Anna’s (Chandra West) mysterious disappearance and death. Following Anna’s disappearance, Jonathan is contacted by Raymond Price (Ian McNiece), who claims to have received messages from Anna through Electronic Voice Phenomenon.
EVP is a way the dead can communicate with the living through household recording devices, such as radios, televisions and computers. The movie revolves around the premise of EVP, and it drives Jonathan further into the supernatural realm. Once Jonathan is convinced that EVP is real, he soon becomes obsessed with contacting his dead wife. Jonathan continues his explorations into EVP, disregarding warnings and haunting images.
“They can’t all be nice,” said Raymond, Jonathan’s EVP guide.
If the good can contact the living through EVP, then the evil of the otherworld can too. This soon becomes apparent as Jonathan quickly finds himself in threatening situations, fighting for the lives of others and his own.
The trailer of “White Noise” seems to promise a thrilling, supernatural ride through the channels of EVP. However, the film falls short of fulfilling its goals. The main elements of the plot are ineffectively connected, and the story does not quite come full circle, resulting in confusion as to what happened and most importantly, why it happened.
Just like the static that fills much of the movie, “White Noise” is extremely unclear. Though the film is intriguing and captivating, the audience is let down at the end. The lack of information and adequate explanation delivers an unsatisfying conclusion. There are too many questions left in the viewer’s mind once the credits start to roll.
While the script contains countless holes, one must not discount Michael Keaton’s performance. Keaton gives a believable performance, and though it may not be Oscar material, the way Keaton plays his role is the best part of this poorly written film. Screenwriter Niall Johnson (“The Big Swap”) should take most of the blame for the lackluster conclusion.
Director Geoffrey Sax, a British television director, does contribute to the mild success of the film with shadowy scenes, creepy camera angles and pleasing visuals. The film’s thrilling moments are even fairly predictable, but that is no surprise in light of the disappointing plotline.
“White Noise” contained too many loose ends and the confusing, even downright cheesy ending did not sufficiently complete the movie. Unfortunately, the line separating an edge-of-your-seat thriller from a disjointed cheap thrill was the only line this film managed to cross.
01-13-2005
