Great for tuning fork lovers. Interesting at first, but I slowly got tuned out.

Do toasters emit a resonant hum even when turned off that alters one's mood?

Anyway, the real source of background sound dissonance is vehicle, airplane & human created sounds all of which were somehow missed.

Not an action movie (pun intended),but a slowburning movie. Mysterious and mesmerizing story. Best served in a quiet and dark room, because this movies' photography and sound is as delicate as can be, with many scenes so dark, that it is barely visible what is happening, only further adding to the mesmerizing effect though...

The story: Peter Sarsgard plays an analyst of sounds, who has got a super sensitive ear and who helps people "tune" their homes, by removing certain dissonant sounds, until that day he isnt able to help one particular woman, played by Rashida Jones. What is going on inside Rashida Jones' house?

The good: the acting is great. The sound effects are mesmerizing. The story (terrific climax at the end) is wonderfully delicate, mysterious and (again!) mesmerizing.

Any bad? It's quite a dark and moody slowburning movie, almost depressing in nature, therefore not suited for the impatient or happy go lucky. However this movie is highly recommended for the art house movie fans of subtle and dark, mysterious stories, provided one darkens it's room before watching it, because of the very dark lighting techniques one often cant see very well what is happening on screen.

This movie needs to be heard as much as it needs to be seen. Terrific soundtrack. Using headphones quite effectively enhanced the claustrophobic, mysterious effect this movie had on me!

End note: if you liked this movies theme and spirit, you must try out the brilliant classic movie "The Conversation", directed by Francis Ford Coppola. It has got an almost similar theme, but it is much more intense and suspenseful...

One interesting effect of watching this film was that I kept wondering, "Is this a real story?" There's a feeling of accompanying the characters completely, like when watching real-time documentary footage. So I give The Sound of Silence big props for achieving utter non-contrivance. There's funky feel to the character tensions that's reminiscent of Beautiful Mind.

I personally love the premise and the resolution, though these get somewhat lost to the intensity of the city setting. On the other hand, that same setting makes the "bad guy" (commercial development) more ominous, so ultimately the setting is a fine choice.

It is indeed a slow film, but what it suffers from more are some confusing editing and scene choices that muddy the characters and story a bit.