Noise (Region 1 Import DVD)

Anyone who's ever been kept up all night by a car alarm will love NOISE, a comedic howl of urban rage. Tim Robbins stars as David Owen, a New York City husband and father who gradually lets the urban blight of car alarms drive him mad. He becomes "the Rectifier," a vigilante superhero (of sorts) who sabotages cars with malfunctioning alarms. As his notoriety spreads, the mayor (William Hurt) decides to take action and bring the Rectifier to justice. Meanwhile, David's madness drives away his cellist wife (Bridget Moynahan) and he takes refuge in the arms of a younger, Eastern European grad student (Margarita Levieva) for whom his urban resistance has a valid socio-political dimension. Based on writer-director-producer Henry Bean's real-life failed crusade against noise pollution, the film never falls too far on the side of either satire or urban sermonizing, which is to its credit. Viewers of the "mad as hell and not going to take it anymore" sort, for whom the inanity of the car alarm phenonemon is a continual and understandable source of frustration, will want to rally behind this movie like some kind of crazy freak flag. There's some nicely sketched in detail of Upper West Side family life, with Moynahan a memorably warm presence and Robbins gamely poking fun at his own real-life predisposition for social activism.