Noise (2007/I)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

Matthew Saville

Writer:

Matthew Saville (writer)

Release Date:

3 May 2007 (Australia)

Genre:

Drama | Thriller

Plot:

The community reels after an incident on a suburban train. A young cop, beset with doubt and afflicted with tinnitus...

Plot Keywords:

Noise | Tinnitus | Train | Innocent Bystander | Medical Test

Awards:

12 wins & 17 nominations

Cast

Maia Thomas	...	Lavinia Smart
Carole Browne	...	Dead Lady
Kent Clifton-Bligh	...	Dead Transit Cop
Aaron Murphy	...	Dead Teenage Boy
Jess Huon	...	Dead Twentysomething #1
Grant Scicluna	...	Dead Twentysomething #2
Aaron Mcloughlin	...	Paraplegic
Brendan Cowell	...	Constable Graham McGahan
Greg Williams	...	Constable
Richard Pyros	...	Carter
Georgia Bolton	...	Policewoman
Kylie Trounson	...	Intern
Fiona MacLeod	...	Detective Melanie Ryan
Nicholas Bell	...	Snr. Det. Noel Birchall
Katie Wall	...	Constable Caitlin Robinson

Also Known As:

Vomvos (Greece) (festival title) [el]

Runtime:

108 min | Germany:105 min (European Film Market)

Country:

Australia

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Australia:MA

Filming Locations:

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Company:

Retro Active Films

All roads lead to.... where?

After seeing an interview with director Matthew Saville, who seemed as intelligent as any film maker you could care to name, I was interested enough to go out and track this one down. And it doesn't disappoint. Certainly visually it is wonderfully well executed, and the sound is strong too. The dialog is sharp, subtle, and at points hilarious (and supremely Australian).

Unfortunately, the downside is the disjointedness of the plot line. To me it seemed yearning to be free from a plot line as a major source of interest (and focus instead in the pure dialog and landscape - certainly I feel that's where Saville's interest is). But it wasn't. There are two driving plot lines along the whole film and something happens in every scene, even though subplots are not continued, or often resolved. To me the finale was also ultimately quite generic and futile as a point of interest.

Ultimately, the words 'interesting, but not "great"' come to mind, and it fits vaguely into a bucket with several other Australian films of the last 5 years (candy, little fish, look both ways, Japanese story, etc.) in dealing with the same demographic, themes of emptiness and loss, and being willingly obtuse (artistic?) in its presentation, even if this one does have its own thing happening a little outside of that also.