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By
NICK ZEGARAC
Geoffrey Sax's "White Noise"
(2005) is a sleeper. By this I mean that it will,
quite literally, put the viewer to sleep. It is an
inane little bit of fluff and nonsense that relies
so heavily on the atmospheric subtly -- a la its
X-File-ish B.C. locations, that there isn't much
time for grieving widower, Jonathan Rivers
(Michael Keaton) to get to the bottom of
supernatural goings on from beyond the grave.
Mourning the freakish accidental death of his
wife, Anna (Chandra West), Rivers is driven to
distraction when a paranormal investigator
convinces him that he just might be able to have a
one-way séance with his dead wife via the
phenomenon of "white noise."
For those unfamiliar, think of the scene from
Poltergeist (an infinitely better film) in which
Heather O'Rourke turns to her mother and father
after peering into the blank screen of their
television set and whispers, "They're here." Known
as EVP, or Electronic Voice Phenomenon, which
allows the dead to communicate to the living
through images and voices recordable on a variety
of electronic media such as VCRs, computers,
Jonathan becomes obsessed with making contact
until he begins to get unsettling vibes that
perhaps the afterlife is riddled in evils far
greater than those on earth. A little bit too
conveniently, Jonathan builds connections between
the mixed messages he's getting and a string of
killings and disappearances taking place in
Vancouver. The story just gets weirder from there.
Director, Geoffrey Sax, known primarily for his
work in British television, manages to salvage
something in mood and tone in an otherwise torrid
little bit of hokum. But there are too few moments
of genuine eeriness in this otherwise dumb
thriller/horror flick in which obsession leads a
bereft man to confront the destructive nature of
the afterlife.
The anamorphic transfer from Universal is rather
impressive. Though much of the story takes place
predictably at night or in dark places, fine
details are prevalent throughout. The stylized
color scheme exhibits exemplary tonality and
contrast. The audio is 5.1 and manages to inflict
a few faux moments of fright where none would
otherwise exist. Extras include several
featurettes, including one on the paranormal, as
well as deleted scenes. |
