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Angie: (Jerry Goldsmith) In a feature film that was
originally set to have starred Madonna as the title character,
Angie
takes Geena Davis instead on a wild ride from New York comedy to larger
American melodrama. Adapted from Avra Wing's novel "Angie, I Says," Todd
Graff's script is executed on the big screen by director Martha Coolidge,
whose involvement with the project would have seemed like an appropriate one
given her well-received work on another "woman's coming of age" film,
Rambling Rose. The problem with the film, however --and it was
greeted with indifference by both critics and audiences-- was the indecision
about which direction to take
Angie in relation to its genre. The
first half of the film is a very funny, almost sitcom-style comedy, taking
us on a journey of relational problems with considerable New York flavour.
The latter half of the film is much more heavy-handed on the drama,
exploring far deeper issues than the first half of the film could possibly
foreshadow. It is this twist of focus that either soured the lighthearted
mood or saved you from it, and in either case, the wandering focus would
doom the picture. Coolidge claims that she believed the scoring task for
Angie would be a difficult one, perhaps because of these two
contrasting styles in one film. Composer Jerry Goldsmith, however, seemed to
have the ability to step up to the challenge. The early 1990's were the
ultimate proof of the veteran composer's versatility, with sensitivity for
smaller films flowing steadily from his pen in the early years of that
decade. Balancing the comedy and drama elements in
Angie was
accomplished by Goldsmith, some would say, although the need to walk the
tightrope between both means that the score doesn't really excel in either
the comedy or drama.
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.
**
| Bias Check: | For Jerry Goldsmith reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating
is 3.22 (in 111 reviews)
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