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| CD Reviews: Lemony Snicket and Sideways |
| Posted By: Andrew Kirby, Cary Wong on March 8, 2005 - 10:00 PM |
CD Reviews: Lemony Snicket and Sideways
Lemony Snicket's A Series of
Unfortunate Events ***
THOMAS NEWMAN
Sony Classical/Sony Music Soundtrax – SK 93576
29 tracks - 69:00
One of the most anticipated family films of the holiday season, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate
Events hoped to jumpstart as profitable a franchise as Harry Potter. Also based on a
series of children's novels, Lemony
Snicket follows the misadventures of the three Baudelaire
orphans after their parents are killed in a fire. The children are
taken in by Count Olaf, a distant relative who's more interested in the
fortune than in the kids' well being. And while this first installment
is the film adaptation of the first three books in the series (The Bad Beginning, The Reptile Room
and The Wide Window), the
books are already on their eleventh volume.
The first movie, like with Harry
Potter, sets the tone and the mood of the series. Director Brad
Silberling has created a washed out world with few primary colors and
with danger lurking in every corner. For this downbeat setting,
composer Thomas Newman creates one of the least joyful children's movie
scores ever, but it is totally appropriate. Just listen to the first
cue, "The Bad Beginning," which starts with a peppy tune that's soon
bumped aside by Newman's signature darker sound.
Newman did however waste an opportunity to put a stamp on the Snicket franchise by failing to
provide a memorable and noticeable main theme like (though I hate to
keep referring to it) "Hedwig's Theme." The only recurring theme that I
could even imagine a child recognizing was the one for the orphans;
it's a bittersweet Victorian-like music box melody. Digging deeper,
there's also a lesser used theme (heard in "Resilience") reminiscent of
the coral reef music from Finding
Nemo. The peppy tune of the first cue also returns as a full
Disney-styled song written by Newman and Bill Bernstein called "Lovely
Spring," acting as a pleasant diversion. The rest of the score is
mostly devoted to the Six Feet Under-type
macabre music Newman is known for.
Even though the CD is almost 70 minutes long, it is filled with a
series of 29 unfortunate cues of various lengths, from a mere 38
seconds in length, to the five-minute end title. If you didn't mind
this format in Finding Nemo,
you should be fine with it here. I for one am tired of trying to find
the heart in a score that is so wildly diverse and seemingly
insurmountable. Also, Newman has been indulging in this type of
soundtrack release for too long. Call me a curmudgeon, but if he's not
willing to give us some more cohesion on his CDs, then I'm not going to
give it too many listenings.
As disappointed as I was with the presentation, this is still classic
Thomas Newman and fans should be delighted. The thought that a
generation of kids may have Thomas Newman's Lemony Snicket scores as part of
the music of their childhood is fortunate indeed.
-- Cary Wong
Sideways *** 1⁄2
ROLFE KENT
New Line B0002ZYDOW
15 tracks - 37:54
From its unreserved critical praise, coupled with its funny trailer and
bucolic print ads, you might assume that Sideways is not much more than a
light, romantic road trip through the Santa Barbara wine country,
interspersed with picnics, chardonnay and a little hand-holding. But
when it comes down to it, the film is relatively dark, and there's much
more to it than the Pinot Noirs that are so lovingly tasted throughout
the movie. The movie starts with a hung-over Paul Giamatti muttering
"f-ck," and ends with some slapstick sex scenes that John Waters would
have been happy to choreograph. In between, there is assault-by-golf
worthy of Happy Gilmore, and
a trail of cynically discarded women. All in all, then, it might also
come as a surprise that while Rolfe Kent's score contains titles such
as "I'm Not Drinking Any #@%!$ Merlot," this a light, '60s jazz work
that superficially dovetails with the way the movie is marketed as a
romantic comedy.
Director Alexander Payne (Election,
About Schmidt) is even quoted
as saying that he wanted "long pieces of jazz that arc over two three
or four scenes that don't really score anything, they're just there so
that if the audience gets bored they'll have something to tap their
toes to."
Having bought into the road trip description, I first took this CD on a
long drive through the West Texas wine country (aka the Odessa oil
fields), but quickly gave up on that plan as my attention kept
wandering away from the subtle instrumentation. But even as I turned to
something else, I also realized that I had the main theme ("Asphalt
Groovin'") lodged somewhere in my consciousness. It was only when I
listened to the soundtrack in a quieter setting that I began to realize
what Kent had concocted.
Essentially, the score is homage to the cool, sophisticated acoustic
jazz of the Miles Davis-Gil Evans era (and a snippet of Davis is also
heard on the film's soundtrack, although not on the CD, which is
strictly Kent's work). Impeccably played by a small ensemble, this
sounds like an extension of Davis' "Quiet Nights." The CD even mixes up
the chronology of the tracks, in order to create a short but enjoyable
mood piece, ending with the slow and wistful "Miles and Maya."
There is much more to the music. One of the reasons that Kent's main
theme is so catchy is that it sounds like a reworking of the Burt
Bacharach and Hal David song "Wives and Lovers." While you may not
recognize the title, you will know the lyrics, which start off with the
admonition, "Hey little girl, comb your hair, fix your make-up," and go
on to make dire warnings about what a wife must do to keep her man. One
of the most sexist odes to male biology ever written (and fully
reflecting its 1964 origins), it constitutes the perfect hymn to the
two male characters within Sideways:
Jack, who is determined to use all his condoms before the end of the
road trip, which is the week prior to his wedding; and Miles, who
steals from his mother, talks his way into a woman's bed with a paean
to viticulture, and gets drunk and harasses his ex-wife.
With its muted horns, piano, bongos and vibes, the score immediately
conjures up images of Playboy
and silk pajamas -- or perhaps The
Pink Panther. And like Inspector Clouseau, the sophistication of
Jack and Miles is entirely superficial, so the cool jazz provides a
deeply satisfying contrast to these two would-be lotharios, with their
expanding waistlines, foot deodorant and an aging convertible. The
irony of the music in the context of the film itself is easy to miss;
it is so quietly inserted that it only appears with repeated viewing
and listening. Perhaps that's another reason why Sideways garnered so many awards
and nominations in 2004, namely that it contains an ingredient usually
lost on Hollywood -- subtlety. -- Andrew Kirby
MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com
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Today in Film Score History:
April 23 |
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| Alain Jomy born (1941) |
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| Andre Previn begins recording his score for The Fastest Gun Alive (1956) |
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| Arthur B. Rubinstein died (2018) |
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| Bernard Herrmann begins recording his North by Northwest score (1959) |
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| Christopher Komeda died (1969) |
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| Harold Arlen died (1986) |
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| Hilmar Orn Hilmarsson born (1958) |
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| James Horner begins recording his score for House of Cards (1992) |
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| Jay Gruska born (1952) |
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| Jonsi born (1975) |
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| Kenji Kawai born (1957) |
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| Louis Barron born (1920) |
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| Patrick Williams born (1939) |
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| Robert Farnon died (2005) |
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| Satyajit Ray died (1992) |
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| Sergei Prokofiev born (1891) |
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