Description:
Academy Award® winner Tim Robbins stars as David Owen, a Manhattan husband and father so unhinged by the noise outside his window that he declares a one-man war on car alarms. But when David goes over the edge and becomes a citywide noise-vigilante known as 'The Rectifier', he incurs the wrath of New York’s sleazy blowhard Mayor (a hilarious performance by Oscar® winner William Hurt) who vows to stop him. How much damage will one guy inflict for a little peace and quiet? Bridget Moynahan (I, ROBOT) and William Baldwin (Dirty Sexy Money) co-star in this wickedly funny black comedy from award-winning writer/director Henry Bean
Academy Award® winner Tim Robbins stars as David Owen, a Manhattan husband and father so unhinged by the noise outside his window that he declares a one-man war on car alarms. But when David goes over the edge and becomes a citywide noise-vigilante known as 'The Rectifier', he incurs the wrath of New York’s sleazy blowhard Mayor (a hilarious performance by Oscar® winner William Hurt) who vows to stop him. How much damage will one guy inflict for a little peace and quiet? Bridget Moynahan (I, ROBOT) and William Baldwin (Dirty Sexy Money) co-star in this wickedly funny black comedy from award-winning writer/director Henry Bean (The Believer) that The New Yorker hails as "a splendidly eccentric film alive with the creative madness of New York City!"
Of all the noxious aspects to modern life, the one that people seem to most passively put up with is noise pollution--random car alarms, horns, sirens, screeching machinery and the like. Perhaps because there's no single "bad guy" behind the creeping situation, there've been few movements against it. Which leaves the perfect opening for Noise, Henry Bean's allegory about a one-man vigilante for peace and quiet, played with torment and depth by the always-dependable Tim Robbins. Robbins plays David, a devoted husband and father who becomes so distressed--then obsessed--by the noise in his adopted home of Manhattan that he snaps (quietly, of course). The film channels Falling Down, but also has elements of Batman and other superhero dramas, as David takes on the persona of The Rectifier--breaking into cars whose alarms go off incessantly and dismantling the alarms. His obsession takes deeper and more dangerous turns, and he becomes both public enemy No. 1 (in the eyes of the city's unctuous mayor, played splendidly by William Hurt, who calls him "nothing but a two-bit vigilante") and a hero to the everyjoes as rattled by the needless racket as David is. Bean's storytelling is also creative, playing with time and chronology, as David's focus shifts and darkens. One wonders periodically why David doesn't take up the suggestion of his wife (Bridget Moynahan) to move to the leafy suburbs, or even back to the Midwest. But no matter: The Rectifier is on a mission. "I used to think there's nothing you could do about the noise," David muses at one point. "But once you get started, it's easy. It's stopping that's hard." The disc includes a fascinating commentary by writer-director Bean, who based the character of David on himself, years earlier when he broke into cars to turn off their alarms, even serving jail time for the offenses. --A.T. Hurley
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Manufacturer: Starz / Anchor Bay
Release date: 16 September 2008
Number of discs: 1
EAN: 0013131615692 UPC: 013131615692
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