I like Black Panther, but I didn't like this movie.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

As much as the beginning of the film had promise - happily married couple are destroyed by the wife dying in an apparently tragic accident - the fact that the grieving husband was receiving messages from his dead wife through white noise (reminiscent of Steven Spielberg's Poltergeist) seemed like a suspenseful plot until we understand it is to help other people who are about to die.I wanted his wife's communications to be about the exact nature of her own demise and that it had been far more sinister than it first appeared - which it was - but not in the way we want it to be. The fact that she was newly pregnant played out to virtually no significance. Unfortunately, there are too many unanswered questions and loose ends that leave the viewer with an overwhelming sense of frustration.I marked it down for being somewhat unsatisfied by it, while marking it up more for creating genuine fear and suspense.

I'm grading White Noise on a very generous curve, mainly because it wasn't entirely the garbage I expected and it has a few merits, chief among them some competent direction and a decent central performance by Michael Keaton. He's a very likable, engaging character ... whatever happened to his career? I don't know.Anyhow, the basic plot is that Keaton's wife doesn't come home one night and before long the police locate her car and it's looking very likely that she's never coming home again. A few days later, this fat guy whose name escapes me shows up and tells Keaton that his wife is in fact dead and she's been contacting him (the FG) from beyond the grave. It turns out this gentleman is a bit of an obsessive in EVP, which proposes that the dead can communicate with the living through electronic devices. Keaton is skeptical, but when he begins to receive strange, garbled telephone calls and electronic messages he becomes obsessed with communicating with his late wife. What he doesn't realize is that the signals he's sending out are attracting not only his wife but also unfriendly spirits who may mean him harm.The movie is initially intriguing, but it didn't take long for the plot contrivances to start piling up and killing the suspense. For example, we never understand how the Fat Guy knew that the spirit who's been communicating with him (through foggy images and garbled language) was Keaton's wife. We're also asked to believe that Keaton accepts EVP purely on the basis of a few creepy phone calls, although his wife is a famed author and may have some unhinged fans. As the plot moves along, Keaton finds himself connected with a string of violent accidents and a murder. The police never question him about his repeated involvement in these events. The Fat Guy is apparently murdered - Keaton never reflects on this or seems to ask why.The bigger problem for me though is that the movie is so damn derivative, especially of The Mothman Prophecies, a far better movie that came out 3 years earlier. We get the obligatory shadowy figures moving behind an unsuspecting character and loud jump scares but that's really it. The film is extremely short on original imagery or atmosphere and there was literally nothing on screen that I hadn't seen in other (better) movies: aside from Mothman there were serious echoes of The Grudge and The Ring. For a movie about mysterious messages from beyond the grave, there was a real dearth of imagination and the whole thing just felt tepid.Really not worth watching on anything but free cable.

Despite its many down points (and there are several) and obvious borrowings from Spiehlberg's Poltergeist, this film manages to hold its own identity among the touchy subject of supernatural thrillers, a genre that is quite good at falling into clichés. Our story begins with a simple quote and static-y opening sequence-a pertinent and interesting opener to an interesting movie. Geoffrey Sax's unique directorial style becomes very clear within the first few minutes, including shots from angles uncommonly seen from the human eye and several long fades-which can be awkward at times. However, Sax does a great job at directing the emotion in Michael Keaton's struggle with his wife's passing. However, as soon as Anna dies and we start seeing this EVP maniac for the first time, the plot becomes really incomprehensible. Due to limited dialog with Anna's spirit through the static, the plot becomes so garbled it takes a lot of thinking to tell what's going on. However, if you can comprehend this screwed-up second act Niall Johnson crapped out, you will be rewarded with Geoffrey Sax's superior direction of suspense, character reaction, and stuff popping out at you. His style almost echoes that of terror master Sam Raimi, sometimes building you up to where you know something's going to pop out at you and you know from where, and you brace yourself, and it just...doesn't...happen.So overall, if you're not a perfectionist and can stand a really messed- up, disjointed script, watch this film because of the interesting story, excellent acting, and superior direction. You won't regret it.

After the loss of his wife Anna, played radiantly by Chandra West, architect Jonathan Rivers beings to receive ghostly messages from her. When he is contacted by and electronic voice phenomena (E.V.P) expert Raymond Price things become unsettling as not only are the dead communicating but also people who have not yet passed over.Firstly there's creepy opening titles consisting of noise and static that is followed by the joys of family life and you know something bad is about to happen. Director Geoffrey Sax is not scared to leave quiet moments in and build up a festering tension. He is effective at creating a passages of time. There's a fitting orchestral score, excellent sound effects and great camera work. Sax's on location shot adds credence to the film, it's sharp, crisp and perfectly lit casting strong shadows which gives it an edge and interesting look.White Noise is only dated by the use of VHS tapes and the films premise and ideas are engaging, ghostly phone calls, answer machine messages from the grave, mediums, images and such. However, it's let down in a key scene by a cut and past photo of Price (Ian McNeice) and his son. Grief stricken Michael Keaton gives an excellent stand-out and a truthful performance as widower Jonathan Rivers. That said, co-star Deborah Kara Unger, as Sarah Tate, for the most part is uninspiring.White Noise is at times is unnerving and has some effective scare moments. Midway through it begins getting chilling when the evil spirits make an appearance. But quickly the subtly, tension and effectiveness is lost due to the overuse of special effects and an unnecessary convoluted spirit driven serial killer plot. The story was already intriguing enough. That's said, Keaton's performance keeps you interested but to an unsatisfying conclusion.Wonderfully shot and acted but flawed, only Keaton makes it worth watching.