Buy it... if feelings of disillusionment in your film scores never yield boredom for you, for this music is effectively troubling in its morbidly deliberate themes and unappealing instrumental demeanor.

Avoid it... if you will need more than just a drab sibling to Danny Elfman's engaging melodrama for Sommersby to justify a 30-minute album that offers little relief from its solemn contemplation.

Elfman

Dolores Claiborne: (Danny Elfman) Based upon Stephen King's best-selling novel of 1992, Dolores Claiborne is a straight forward domestic abuse drama that features practically none of the author's usual supernatural elements. The 1995 adaptation stars Kathy Bates as a maid to a wealthy New England family who is beaten physically and emotionally by her drinking, molesting husband. In flashback format, she is revealed to have been encouraged by the woman of the upscale home to kill her husband via a convenient accident, which she managed to accomplish. When she is blamed for the later death of that employer, she is forced to elude prosecution from Christopher Plummer's detective and come to terms with her estranged daughter. Although satisfyingly bittersweet in its conclusion, Dolores Claiborne is by no means an easy viewing experience, the convincing performances by Bates, Plummer, and David Straithairn (as the husband) serving as the main attraction. The coastal Maine scenery, as well as the interior design of the film, is made to de-emphasize vitality, intentionally sapping much of the beauty inherent to the area in an attempt to accentuate the disgust and distrust between the principle players. Also contributing to bleak atmosphere of Dolores Claiborne is Danny Elfman's somewhat uncharacteristically drab score. The composer went through a period in the middle to late 1990's during which he seemed enamored with character dramas of a morbidly downbeat nature, highlighted by his early and classic score for Sommersby. In terms of its orchestral techniques and depressing mood, Dolores Claiborne is the lesser sibling to that 1993 work, absent any of the specialty instruments for location or a harmonious, melodramatic set of thematic structures. Elfman's music in the film is largely restrained, with the exception of two exceedingly violent interactions between the maid and her husband. All of the creativity in wacky rhythmic and instrumental usage by Elfman is completely drained from Dolores Claiborne, leaving it an exceedingly somber accompaniment that produces its own set of challenges on album. It is a score well respected by Elfman collectors for its integrity of spirit, consistency in disillusionment, interesting spanning of extreme tones at the outer edges of the treble and bass, and intelligent employment of strings and piano, but it, much like Extreme Measures the next year, nevertheless remains one of the composer's more difficult and potentially unappealing album presentations.

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The foundation for Dolores Claiborne is a weighty string section of the orchestra, with long lines explored by seemingly directionless players (despite actually following simply very elongated thematic progressions). Skittish violin accents true to Elfman's slightly more eccentric tendencies exist throughout the score as well, highlighting "Vera's World." Deep piano and timpani hits ground the score in the bass while brass only provides depth in long, often incongruous counterpoint roles. Occasional woodwind solos attempt to offer some warmth to the relationships in the picture, but usually fail. Elfman's usual light choral touch punctuates the few moments of victory for the maid, eerily mystical during the conclusion of the "Eclipse" scene and settling the heart with a sense of resolution in "End Credits." There is a primary theme for the film, established in "Main Title" and a defining factor thereafter, though it takes so long for its deliberate progressions to unfold that listeners will have significant difficulty recalling it after the score has finished. Not helping its cause is Elfman's tendency to reinforce his unsetting atmosphere by inserting occasional notes well outside of the already strained harmony of the theme. There are few moments of outright dissonance or atonal force in the score, but there is a perpetual sense of unease that results from Elfman's frequent layering of slightly incongruous lines. Easier to remember from the score is a rising and falling four-note sequence usually performed on piano that extends out of the main theme and is applied as its own motif. An octave-spanning motif for piano and plucked strings contributes a touch of intrigue. Only in two scenes in the film does Elfman's score really assert itself in the mix, and, as mentioned before, both involve the domestic violence between the maid and her husband. The sudden burst of volume in "Getting Even" (an incomplete version of which provided on album) keenly balances tumultuous bass string rhythms and pounding piano with delicate chimes of music box tone. In "Eclipse," Elfman finally offers brass an interesting performance, allowing it to follow an almost Nightbreed-like chase sequence with rapping and tapping percussion and blurting a prominent, seemingly distorted set of figures. These two scenes are aided significantly by these cues in the film, though the rest of the score tends to wash away in the background of the many quiet dialogue scenes. It has been noted that international dubs of the film really increased the volume of Elfman's score, almost to distracting levels. Overall, you have to respect Elfman's approach to Dolores Claiborne, but a short album for the score could either bore or depress with little reward.   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

Music as Written for the Film: ***
Music as Heard on Album: **
Overall: ***

Bias Check:

For Danny Elfman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.18 (in 61 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.17 (in 115,373 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.