'White Noise' script emits weak signals but Keaton rides a strong frequency

Friday, January 7, 2005

By WILLIAM ARNOLD
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER MOVIE CRITIC

Horror and occult films loom unusually large in Hollywood's 2005 release schedule, and the first one out of the gate is "White Noise," a not-bad ghost story that marks a comeback of sorts for its star, Michael Keaton, who hasn't top-billed a movie for almost a decade.

MOVIE REVIEW

WHITE NOISE

DIRECTOR: Geoffrey Sax

CAST: Michael Keaton, Deborah Kara Unger,

Chandra West, Ian McNeice

RUNNING TIME: 101 minutes

RATING: PG-13 for disturbing images and violence

WHERE: Bella Bottega 11, Cinema 17, Crossroads 8, East Valley 13, Everett 9, Factoria, Galaxy Tacoma 6, Gateway 8, Grand Cinemas, Kirkland Parkplace 6, Longston Place 14, Marysville Cinema 14, Monroe 12, Mountlake 9, Pacific Place, Parkway Plaza 12, Woodinville 12

GRADE: B-

Its premise is EVP -- electronic voice phenomenon -- the idea, first advanced (a title card tells us) by Thomas Edison back in 1928, that scientists may be able to actually pick up the voices of those who have "passed over" on the radio.

Keaton plays a successful architect happily married to a young woman (Chandra West) who is so perfect -- mad about him, gorgeous as a supermodel, an internationally famous author and newly pregnant -- that we know she is shortly about to meet her demise.

When it happens, he's naturally upset, and when an overweight English paranormal-researcher (Ian McNeice) tells him he's picked up the voice of the recently deceased, the architect, after some initial reluctance, is interested, then obsessed.

As this situation segues into a thriller plot -- some bad ghosts dwell on the other side as well -- Keaton holds things together with a nuanced, likable and fairly understated performance. If he's desperate to make good in this movie, it doesn't show.

And "White Noise" is somewhat different from the Hollywood occultish norm: It's enjoyably slow-paced, and BBC-trained, first-time feature director Geoffrey Sax tries hard to work against the cliches of the genre, as well as deliver some chilling images we haven't seen before.

Sax clearly wants the movie to work on the level of such classic ghost movies as the original 1963 version of "The Haunting" -- films in which the horror is brilliantly suggested by the imagery and situations and takes place in the mind of the audience.

Unfortunately, the script is just not imaginative or strong enough to carry this worthy ambition. It never adequately explains or makes us believe the EVP premise, it's not cleverly plotted and it never quite engages us long or deep enough to have any real psychological impact.

P-I movie critic William Arnold can be reached at 206-448-8185 or williamarnold@seattlepi.com.