Noise

Noise is a 2007 American comedy drama film written and directed by Henry Bean. It stars Tim Robbins and Bridget Moynahan. Robbins plays a successful lawyer in Manhattan named David Owen who is bothered by all the noise in the city, and who resorts to vandalism to put a stop to it, adopting the identity of "The Rectifier". His acts of vandalism provoke the mayor of the city, played by William Hurt. The film premiered October 22, 2007 at the Rome Film Festival. It was later shown at the AFI Film Festival on November 6, 2007. It opened in limited release in the United States on May 9, 2008. Plot David Owen, a New York lawyer, is constantly plagued by noise, particularly car alarms, but also burglar alarms and backup beepers. Despite putting up with the noise for years, including the formative years of his daughter, he finally breaks into a car to shut off its alarm, and is arrested by police. Owen and his family try living in the countryside for a weekend, but it only replaces one set of noise problems with another. Despite attempting to legally deal with the constant barrage of noise, he makes no progress, and continues to resort to vandalism, resulting in higher and higher court penalties and straining his relationship with his wife, who finally asks him to leave. While living on his own, Owen continues to destroy alarms, and progressively damages cars based on the number of violations. During this, he meets and begins a relationship with Ekaterina, a Russian student. She confronts him with the fact that he is "The Rectifier", a vigilante personality, complete with monikered stickers, that Owen has adopted. After falling in with him, Ekaterina convinces Owen to start a ballot initiative. While initially slow, the measure garners explosive popularity. Despite this, it is shut down by Mayor Schneer, who disdains the Rectifier and believes supporting the measure would encourage vigilantism.