WHITE NOISE - HD DVD review

Michael Keaton deserves better. It was refreshing to see the veteran actor regain a starring role in a major motion picture. "White Noise" even went on to gross more than fifty five million dollars, which easily allowed the ten million dollar movie to turn a profit. The premise of "White Noise" was interesting and the trailer did create an intriguing plot to pull audiences into multiplexes. I remember my own eager desire to see the film. Then, I received word that it was best to save my hard earned dollar for another purpose and that the only true redeeming quality of the film was the former "Batman" actor. I listened and avoided "White Noise" until this HD-DVD release of the film. I have to agree that it was best to avoid the costly movie theater trip and I must also agree that Michael Keaton is the primary reason to sit through the hour and a half running time of "White Noise."

The film starts off slow and finds Michael Keaton starring as a successful architect, John Rivers. He is married to a beautiful novelist, Anna Rivers (Chandra West) and has a young son, Mike (Nicholas Elia) from a previous marriage. Anna announces to John that she is pregnant and leaves with Mike for a fun day together. Extremely happy with the news that he is an expecting father, John goes to work and comes home that night with flowers, wine and candy. Anna has yet to return home and John waits up for her. He calls his ex-wife and learns that his son was dropped off to his mother, but there is still no sign of Anna. Later, her blues Volkswagen Beetle is found and it seems apparent that Anna suffered a fall while changing a flat tire and fell into the waters below. She is missing and presumed dead. John is left mortified with the news that his pregnant wife has died.

Time passes and John notices a strange man is following him. The man, Raymond Price (Ian McNiece) causes alarm with John when he states he has been talking to Anna ‘from the other side.' John brushes the man aside as being insane, but keeps a business card. Later, when John starts to her noises and receive phone calls from his dead wife's cell phone John visits Price and learns about the phenomenon called Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP). Price tells John that he can eventually see images of Anna in a television's static and plays a tape where the voice of Anna can be heard calling for John from the white noise of an unused radio channel. During his first visit, John also meets Sarah Tate (Deborah Kara Unger). Sarah is comforted when she receives a simple two word message through Price's EVP equipment from her dead husband.

John becomes further and further interested in EVP and the promise of communicating with and eventually seeing his dead wife's face. He creates a friendship with Price and with Sarah. Late one night Price calls John with what seems like a possible EVP breakthrough. John rushes to his new friend's house, but finds the place in complete disarray. He never discovers the nature of the breakthrough when he finds Price dead under an avalanche of his own EVP equipment. This doesn't stop John's pursuit of further communication with Anna and the architect buys a great deal of equipment and sets up his own EVP laboratory his newly rented apartment. There, he routinely brushes his son aside to listen to the recordings of white noise and starts to learn that not every paranormal occurrence through EVP is positive.

From the point of attack on Raymond Price, "White Noise" becomes a horror film of ludicrous sensibilities. The notion becomes that John is seeing EVP images of what will happen in the near future and he is seeing dead people that are still very much alive. John uses these images to save a trapped woman's baby moments before the woman is killed. He becomes agitated when Anna cannot provide solid clues on the location of a kidnapped woman. John soon begins to believe that EVP is helping him save lives and becomes even more enamored with his static-filled television screens. Unfortunately, his own life becomes endangered by the evil forces that also use EVP for travel. His relationship with his son becomes more and more distant and his newfound relationship with Sarah is placed into jeopardy. Even the nature of Anna's death becomes questionable.

I enjoyed the earlier parts of the film when Michael Keaton was a widowed man emotionally spent. The premise of EVP as a storyline plot was palpable and had potential. I can think of four or five ways the story could have continued and would have entertained and made complete sense. Unfortunately, the path taken by the writers and the filmmakers was based around a singular absurd premise that has zero payoff when the film ends. "White Noise" doesn't even remain true to the concept of EVP and moves away from hearing dead people to seeing people that will soon be dead. It loses much of the creepy factor in this change of plot. The actors do a fine enough job and both Deborah Kara Unger and Keaton should be used more by Hollywood. Sadly, they aren't given too much to work with and after about the halfway point of the film, I lost total interest and couldn't wait until the film ended.

Video:

The film is presented with a 2.35:1 widescreen picture and mastered in the familiar VC-1 codec at 1080p; a standard for Universal releases. "White Noise" is a good looking title on HD-DVD and benefits from the higher resolution and color reproduction possible through the format, but it isn't a title that would be called reference material. Detail is very deep and Michael Keaton's weathered face shows every wrinkle and age mark. Colors are strong and the black and white snow effect used heavily through the film looks solid. Much of the film takes place in low lighting or darkness and black levels are strong and shadow detail holds up nicely. Film grain is not much of a problem and the source materials are relatively clean. I did notice some shimmering in a few repeated patterns early in the film and this is easily seen I the speaker covers during the opening credits. Otherwise, "White Noise" is a detailed and colorful film that makes good use of the format and holds up during the darkest scenes.

Audio:

Universal seems entrenched in using the Dolby TrueHD sound format when space is available. "White Noise" is the latest film to have an English 5.1 TrueHD mix available and this is becoming very routine with Universal. An English 5.1 Dolby Digital Plus soundtrack and French 5.1 Dolby Digital Plus mix are also included. Subtitles are available in English SDH and French. The supplements are shown in with English Dolby Digital 2.0 sound. The sound mix of "White Noise" is effective and creates tension throughout the picture. The EVP effects are convincing sounding and voices were easier to pick out with TrueHD than with Dolby Digital. The musical score by Claude Foisy is clean sounding. Rear surrounds are used throughout the film to showcase ambient sounds and jump frights. The .1 LFE channel bumps nicely during scary moments, but is not used much more elsewhere. Sound moves smoothly between speakers and dialogue that is intended to be heard cleanly is crystal clear.

Extras:

"White Noise" comes packed with a nice number of supplemental materials. It does not receive the HD-DVD / DVD Combo treatment that its direct-to-video sequel received, nor does it pack the web-based content, but this first film doesn't do too badly in the Extras department. The title features Microsoft's HDi Real Time Interactivity and Universal's My Scenes capabilities. Beyond that, Making Contact: E.V.P. Experts (8:42) is a brief feature that talks about the purported science of Electronic Voice Phenomenon. Two experts in the field walk the viewer through some EVP chatter and you hear some recorded voices. It is a little creepy. Recording the Afterlife at Home (4:27) is a vignette where the experts from the previous feature tell viewers how to record EVP in their own home. The movie suggested this is dangerous, so try it at your own risk. The final ‘scientific' feature is Hearing is Believing: Actual E.V.P. Sessions (14:33) talks more about EVP and Tom and Lisa Butler now show the viewers to actual sessions. A Feature Commentary with Director Geoffrey Sax and Michael Keaton in included and a collection of Deleted Scenes (9:14) with optional director's commentary. The scenes aren't bad and the feature commentary is informative.

Closing Comments:

"White Noise" started out with a good premise and a quality veteran actor. This lasted about halfway throughout the film. Unfortunately, the premise was lost and only Michael Keaton was left to carry the film. It became a silly affair of Keaton's character trying to save the dead and a supernatural horror movie; when it should have remained a thriller. It wasn't necessarily scary and Keaton's ability to portray doom and gloom was lost when they tried to make him more of a horror movie hero. It is passable entertainment, but it could have been so much more. The HD-DVD packs a good picture with quality sound. The extras are decent and help offer more information on EVP. Of course, EVP is only ever used to hear the dead and that was completely abused by the picture. There are far better films out there, but not much recently have benefited from Michael Keaton's presence. It doesn't make for a bad rental, but I wouldn't suggest a purchase.