A bunch of static

Once again, people are seeing dead people.

In “White Noise,” Michael Keaton plays an architect who becomes convinced that his murdered wife is trying to communicate with him. Sometimes her efforts are clear, but more often they’re fuzzy.

The same is true of the movie: Its intentions are well-meaning, but director Geoffrey Sax’s execution is so uneven, it nulls their impact. Despite the surplus of static, the film is moderately compelling, thanks to Keaton’s accessible performance.

The film comments, sometimes in a cautionary manner, on the prevalence of electronics in our lives. The production notes state that homes across the world contain, by conservative estimate, 7 billion audio and video recording devices. As children, many of us wondered if there were people hidden inside our television sets. That was just the beginning.

Keaton plays Jonathan Rivers, the male half of an ideal couple. His architecture is widely appreciated. His wife, Anna (Chandra West), is a celebrated author. They’re deeply in love, and Jonathan, of course, is devastated when Anna becomes the newest victim of a psychopathic murderer.

An eccentric stranger named Raymond Price (Ian McNeice) enters Jonathan’s despondent, widowed existence, claiming to have heard Anna’s voice through Electronic Voice Phenomenon. Known to its intimates as EVP, it’s a process by which the dead allegedly use modern electronic devices to communicate with the living. Anna apparently wants to contact Jonathan so he can help others avoid the psychopath.

Jonathan initially jeers at EVP, though he later comes to cheer it. But his enthusiasm has some unexpected side effects.

All the performances are solid, especially Deborah Kara Unger’s as an EVP advocate who befriends Jonathan. But it’s up to Keaton to carry the film, and he does so effortlessly. He can look like Everyman and then raise his slightly satanic eyebrows to suggest another type of being. Although Jonathan’s ostensibly a good guy, Keaton’s appearance adds another layer to the movie’s guessing game.

“White Noise” has some good boo! moments and striking visuals. It’s also got noble intentions, usually opting for intelligent chills rather than cheap thrills. But it never comes fully into focus.