White Noise (2005 Film Review)

2005 Universal Pictures
Directed by: Geoffrey Sax; Written by: Niall Johnson
Starring: Michael Keaton Deborah Kara Unger Chandra West Ian McNeice
MPAA Rating: PG-13; Running Time: 101 Minutes
The Nicsperiment Score: 3/10

Jonathan Rivers is enjoying his second chance at life. He's a big time architect, and his second wife, Anna, is a big time author. His son from his first marriage seems to be settling into his new two family life. Best of all, Anna is pregnant. Then tragedy strikes. One night, after a late meeting, Anna doesn't come home. Her car is found by a river, and later, her body is too. Apparently she hit her head on a rock after having car issues, fell into the river, and drowned. But Jonathan can't let go. He's contacted by a man named Raymond, who has experienced a similar loss and seems to able to communicate with the dead...including Anna. His method of communication: electronic voice phenomena, and soon Jonathan is sitting at a computer, listening along. He seems to be getting messages from Anna, but also from people who are about to die. There are even some strange, forbidding figures that seem to be lurking outside of it all. Can Jonathan figure out what it all means, as well as his place in this strange new world?
EVP is a strange phenomena and ripe for an interesting cinematic exploration...but not from this writer/director combination. 2005's White Noise is needlessly convoluted and the visual equivalent of a slate grey, forgettable day. There are frequent patches of the film where it's not clear what the conflict is, or why the viewer should even be invested. However, Michael Keaton, the greatest of all Batmans, throws himself into this central role, and he's great, even if it's not always clear what he's even meant to be doing. The mysterious Deborah Kara Unger, putting a less antagonistic spin on the off-kilter femme-fatale type characters she often played in the 90s, does a fine job of backing him up, as a similar EVP-obsessed person drowning in grief. There is a good movie buried somewhere here. There are even some solid and effective jump scares, even if they are a bit telegraphed. In the end, though, it all comes to a highly silly nothing, and a climax that is truly laughable. A boring what could-have-been.