Noises Off
By Barbara Shulgasser-Parker,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Sexual innuendo in farce about actors putting on a play.
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Noises Off
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What's the Story?
In NOISES OFF, a beleaguered director (Michael Caine) is tearing his hair out as he helps shape a Broadway-bound door-slamming farce and does his best to manage his cast, their personal problems, and his own sticky romantic life. Disaster looms at the chaotic dress rehearsal and makes itself evident through a series of calamitous out-of-town performances. While the actors become more adept at remembering their lines, handling props, and negotiating many exits and entrances, romances -- some real and some imagined -- incite jealousies, tears, fights, nosebleeds, and vengeful sabotage, some backstage and some in front of audiences. The movie tries to mimic the play's construction, first showing the bumbling action on stage just as a theater audience would see it. The next view reveals the dramas and emergencies backstage. It culminates with total chaos all around. Former lovers grumble at each other, actors play hide-the-bottle from an alcoholic in the cast, people seem to be caught in compromising positions that are actually innocent. Catastrophe mounts upon catastrophe until the entire cast and understudies find themselves on stage, trying to create a plot that would explain all the unscripted mistakes and disasters that left them in front of an audience not knowing what to do next.
Is It Any Good?
It's a long wait for this film to come up with the comic goods, as it takes about an hour of repetitive set-up for the rewarding big laughs to explode satisfyingly in the movie's final half hour. The acting in Noises Off is broad, as farce calls for, and that may try the patience of some viewers in the early scenes. But director Peter Bogdonavich, with the aid of a cast of veteran performers, including Carol Burnett, John Ritter, Julie Haggerty, and Christopher Reeve, meticulously lays down the foundation for a funny final third when the actors are backstage at each other's throats and, later, on stage desperately trying to mop up the theatrical mess their petty jealousies have created.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about what farce is. The genre dates back to ancient Greek comedy, setting over-the-top characters in absurd and unlikely situations that challenge and thwart them. Can you think of other comedies besides Noises Off that might fall into that category?
How does the screenwriter convey that every character in the movie is as flawed as the next? What are some of the tics and habits he gives the characters to let us know that we are supposed to laugh at them?
If you could remake the movie, who would you cast in the various roles?
Movie Details
- In theaters: March 20, 1992
- On DVD or streaming: May 4, 2004
- Cast: Michael Caine, Carol Burnett, Julie Hagerty, Christopher Reeve, Denholm Elliott, Mark Linn-Baker
- Director: Peter Bogdanovich
- Studio: Touchstone Home Entertainment
- Genre: Comedy
- Run time: 101 minutes
- MPAA rating: PG-13
- Last updated: January 4, 2023
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