Product ReviewsWhite Noise (VHS, 2005)

Michael Keaton's a Widower Making Contact with the Dead

This film suffers from being dull and unbelievable. The plot isn't interesting either. To be obsessed with the dead while a little boy whose mother has died needs a dad to be with him amongst the living is not my kind of ethical film. This film seems to justify negligence by a father of his motherless child. The father is quite self-centered.

Even though I have been disappointed with this film, it's grown on me one knotch in 3 years when I reviewed it previously in DVD format.

Michael Keaton portrays a widower whose wife died in an accident. People who are involved in the EVP (Electric Voice Phenomenon) pseudo-science, who believe they can use rigged up equipment to allow dead people to contact them, start showing up all around Rivers (Keaton). They get Rivers' hopes up believing that his wife is contacting them. Rivers rapidly becomes as addicted to the EVP beliefs system as are the others. By so doing, Rivers practically ignores his motherless little boy. That is the part of the film which bothers me most.

Before you know it Rivers' whole world centers around making EVP contact with his dead wife and the rest of the dead who are interfering with his desired direct contact with her. His son remains neglected in the shadows. But the film's point neglects to take issue with the father's neglect of the child. That's why it's problematic for me still. I can't get beyond that huge omission.

I call this film spookological. But it's not even scary, or a thriller, or a suspense because there is no basic sustaining plot that holds the film together in a meaningful way.

So the guy loses his wife and becomes obsessed with her death. ::Yawning:: What's original about that? What's original about weird hooky spooky side-show techniques which pretend to make contact with dead people who are beloved or dangerous? I found it rather morbid, but certainly not thrilling or suspenseful. Not even science fiction~Read full review...