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Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you enjoy Jerry Goldsmith's tender, fluid, and easy comedy/light drama scores despite the familiarity of the themes and instrumentation. Avoid it... if you enjoy Goldsmith's comedy and drama separately at their finest, and you don't need a balancing act that leaves both sounds lukewarm. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
Regardless of the pickle that the film's wayward direction put the composer into, the final Angie identity does have a great amount of charm and affection. A delightful melody for the title character inhabits the entire score, with variations bubbling up from light rhythms in the first half to melodramatic strings and keyboarding in the latter half. The introduction of "Angie's Theme" is done in almost a child-like manner, perhaps representing the character before her "growing up" experiences occur later in the film. This theme is delicately played by accordion, piano, Mancini-style strings, and electric bass with a faint waltz-like rhythm. In subsequent tracks, this theme is put through a more jovial Italian rendition (for Angie's Italian boyfriend), placing the previous, French sensibilities of the title theme in a somewhat awkward ethnic position. Goldsmith's synthesized elements tingle over the top as they almost always did at the time, and the electronic loops keep a low profile throughout much of the score. Outside of the rhythmic "Family Life" cue, one that shares many traits with Rachel Portman's upbeat comedy writing, the score relies on very low-key, nearly solo performances of melody. As the film takes a turn towards the more serious, and the title character ventures on a search for her long lost mother (in "The Journey Begins"), the score uses the minimal power of its partial ensemble to generate some substantive worry and doubt. A solo trumpet is given the task of representing the wandering spirit of the character, although the lack of power in these cues --written to be melodramatic-- causes them to fall short due to rather tepid instrumentation. When you stand back and look at Angie as a whole, you almost wish that the comedy was more spirited and the drama more weighty, even though the director likely advised Goldsmith to keep as even of a keel as possible between the two halves. On album, Angie is a short, fluid, and easy listening experience. But the composer has written better comedy and better drama separately in other far better scores, leaving Angie as a shadow of the composer's more successful works. **
The insert includes an interesting pictorial of Goldsmith and his team at work, as well as the following note from director Martha Coolidge:
He saw several early cuts of the picture and we talked about the music extensively. I felt that because it is an intimate movie, it shouldn't have a 'big,' dramatic score. He agreed and wanted to develop a theme with a folk-like melody. The elegant simplicity of the score for Angie speaks for Jerry's uncompromising originality and heart. Thank you, Jerry!" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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