Despite being born into a family of classically accomplished musicians, antiterrorism officer Amadeus (Nilsson) isn't just tone-deaf; he actively despises music. So when a sextet of anarchic percussionists start wreaking havoc around town---they jackhammer outside of a concert hall and rhythmically bongo on an obese patient's belly in a hospital ward---Amadeus becomes hell-bent on saving the city and restoring silence.
Basically Stomp recast as a quirky Swedish comedy, Sound of Noise gets some preliminary mileage out of a gonzo-absurdist premise, as codirectors Ola Simonsson and Johannes Stjrne Nilsson cheekily concoct a heist film, with crack percussionists replacing safe crackers, and "sound bombs" detonated instead of pyrotechnics. "This is a gig!" the masked marauders bark while bum-rushing a bank. "Listen, and no one will get hurt!" (When cops go looking for suspects, every local busker, rocker and trombonist is booked.) Yet without an articulated ulterior motive, all that sound and fury starts to seem needless and tedious, worsened by a narrative that descends into an underdeveloped, dispiritingly rote love story. The backbeat anarchy is fun while it lasts, but without a persuasive purpose, it's all just noise in the end.
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