This is an unusual movie in the sense that if you are not interested in the subject matter, I'm not sure you will gain anything here. There is nothing fancy big budget tricks to sway you in a cinematic experience but what they did here is very clever and if you like movies that make you aware of a formerly unnoticed thing, check this one out.
I happen to enjoy the discussion of sound, music, patterns, and the unseen forces all around us. It is a very cerebral approach to something that we all never knew about: how the sounds around us might actually be affecting us. Talk about the elephant in the room!
Peter Sarsgaard plays a man (also named Peter) making a map of New York City based on the different sounds of the neighborhoods. He had his three handy tuning forks (which can be seen on the movie poste there) which he uses to determine the frequency of an area, then assigning a musical key to the area. He makes a living by "reading" people's apartments to determine the sound of the ambient rooms and then telling the occupants how they can best shape the frequencies in the room to create a more harmonious living space. He discusses the sounds of appliances and he has even created devices of his own to counterbalance other sounds. It is really a very interesting concept and there is a lot of exploring to do there but that is not what makes this movie so captivating.
Peter is trying to branch out with his abilities so he buddies up with a company that makes home products to help people relax by changing the smells and sounds of an environment, something Peter seems to immediately find tacky. And within conversations the world of Peters beliefs really open up. He does not believe that his "tool", his ability to confront the sounds of a space in a very unusual way, should be commercialized to the masses.
I'll leave the rest up for you to discover. A really great performance by Bruce Altman as Harold, the man trying to recruit Peter to work for the big company. And of course Peter Sarsgaard in as solid as a performance as we know him for.
Unfortunately I found the storyline with Rashida Jones' character Ellen to be really lacking in anything that provided a satisfying plot. Not to say she did a bad job just seemed like lazy writing to fill a full movie with, therefore her scenes really seemed uninspired. Also too many montages, I get it New York City is a beautiful symphony of sounds but once or twice is enough, more than that and i'm really not sure what I'm watching anymore. The somber piano soundtrack also was a little disheartening, lost the flow of the movie.
I know that is a lot of complaint for something I rated 7/10 but all the actors really did a great job and it is very clear that once the director got more than one actor in a scene together really, honestly, some movie magic happened and it was hard to look away let alone be uninterested in the concept of these sounds and rhythms guiding our days in ways that we could not be aware. This movie is clearly about the sounds that shape our lives and resonate in us creating the people we are but with each discussion of this I feel a deep underlying notion trying to be made that sound is just the factor that it is possible to be aware of. That is we notice the sound, if we stop and listen we will undoubtedly notice a dozen minor sounds happening around us all the time but just imagine what else is there pushing us in all directions...society is a maliable entity and it's because it's made up of individuals and we are, like, 60% water. What do you think resonates very easily through water? That's right, sound. So sound is the starting point. There is a pattern there and I think once we are able to resonate with it completely something truly good will come of it. Be aware, take notice, and, of course, thank the filmmakers for making a good movie here,
thanks
