In Pursuit of Silence

A meditation on silence as a commodity vanishing from the modern world and a pondered appeal to recover it while we still can. It is a bit all over the place, as other reviewers have noted, but I see this more as a quality. The film does not restrict itself to a linear argument, but rather tracks silence and noise as foundations of our existence and being. The recurring motif is John Cage's 4'33, which serves as a benchmark for the many issues raised. The film's greatest strength, by far, is its mindful use of sound design as an element of cinematic experience. Throughout, the audience is made to 'see' sound purposefully, like in a piece of sound art, and thus to challenge the way we take noise for granted in our daily lives. Ironically, the biggest flaw, for me, was the musical soundtrack, which encroached on moments that could have more profitably been given over to silence. Highly recommend this film to anyone interested in re-thinking the many things wrong with the way we live in the age of social networking. That's pretty much everyone, really.