I enjoyed the movie.

There are some truly blissful moments, such as the first time a wailing car gets what's coming to it, or when the mayor suffers an even greater offence than our hero. Truly, these are worth the price of admission, just to see.

But the movie stumbles in places, trying to get all philosophical on us at points. I don't care about Hegel. Hegel's dead. Let's move on. To a three-way? What's that about? Seriously, someone this obsessed with car alarms isn't having a three-way. Or a two-way for that matter. Let him be the hero he is. That's enough.

Some other comments claimed to point to "hypocrisy". Not so. All of the sounds that he appreciated were sounds that many people want to hear, like a live music performance in your own home -- a sound created specifically to be appreciated and admired. Few people actually want to hear car alarms under any circumstances, or jackhammers, or garbage trucks, or any of the other utterly pointless noises that fill a city.

But, in summary, I did enjoy the film, and I was lucky enough not to be interrupted by the jerk two floors up from me who likes to blare his stereo (with sub-woofer) at all hours of the evening and night, into the morning. The police do nothing.

It's foolish to think a film will spur action, but at least we can enjoy it for 90 minutes or so.

David Owen is as mad as hell and he's not going to take it anymore. What he's mad about is car alarms. Car alarms that go off in the middle of the night, or when he's trying to put his colicky baby to sleep, or when he's making love to his wife, or when he's just this close to grasping a particularly dense passage in a treatise by Hegel. After years of putting up with this ubiquitous urban din and vainly pleading with the authorities to do something about it, David finally resorts to vigilantism, smashing out the windows and dismantling the alarms of the offending vehicles, even going so far as to leave a calling card in his wake identifying himself as The Rectifier. Soon the mysterious noise-fighter has achieved near folk-hero status among his fellow Manhattanites and become a true thorn-in-the-side to the city's unctuous mayor, played amusingly by William Hurt.

Sort of a dark comic, upscale version of "Taxi Driver," "Noise" is a rage-against-the-machine fantasy that chooses as its target the relentless cacophony of city life. David, who's a successful attorney in his day job, isn't quite as off the rails as Travis Bickle, but there are times when his obsessiveness begins to border on the psychotic. Is David suffering from mental illness or is he simply acting out against the impotency and inadequacy he feels in all areas of his life? Or does he just get off on hating and being angry all the time? Whatever the underlying psychological reason, once he establishes himself as The Rectifier, David develops a whole new outlook on life. And who among us can't identify at least to some extent with David's frustration, for don't we all have something that forever gets under our skin and that we would do just about anything we could to get it to stop? David just happens to be the one person to actually act on that impulse.

Written and directed by Henry Bean, "Noise" is a satire of metropolitan neuroticism performed in a minor key. Tim Robbins carries the film with his understated portrait of a man wound up so tight that he threatens at any moment to completely unravel. He receives solid support from Bridget Moynihan as the wife who can't understand why the man she married has suddenly turned into a raving lunatic, and Margarita Levieva as an attractive newspaper reporter who uncovers The Rectifier's true identity and wants to explore what really makes this explosive man-of-the-people figure "tick."

The humor isn't always as uproarious as it could be, but everyone, not just city-dwellers, should find something to appreciate in David Owens' amusingly extended rant.

Now, if I hadn't had sex with Bridget Moynahan in a month, I really don't think a car alarm would have interrupted me. Having said that I am in complete agreement with David (Tim Robbins). Car alarms, motorcycles, those damn beep beep phones - they should all be dealt with in the most severe manner. David has the guts the rest of us lack.

David did give them a chance. The legal system refused to enforce the law, so he justifiably took matters into his own hands. (It's in the Declaration of Independence.) Of course, he did jail time. He was fired, and his wife kicked him out.

He eventually joins forces with Ekaterina Filippovna (Margarita Levieva),and they manage to rile the Mayor (William Hurt). But, they do pick up a new partner (María Ballesteros) for their after hours fun.

This was a hilarious movie about how we need to take a stand for our neighbors. Really.

Oh, yeah, his wife takes him back in the end. Good for her.