Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you seek a competent, effective suspense score that balances its extremely minimalistic portions with enough elevated style in its later cues to be recommended. Avoid it... if only David Arnold's full orchestral bombast or hip urban rhythms alone are what you're looking for in a single score from the composer. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
Enough: (David Arnold) In the 2002 domestic conflict film Enough, Jennifer Lopez plays the role of "Slim" (ironic, given all of the talk at the time about Lopez having her rear end artificially slimmed down), a working class waitress whose life becomes seemingly perfect when she marries a rich contractor and moves into the comfortable suburbs. Then, of course, the contractor becomes an abusive wacko, the wife runs away, the husband and his henchmen pursue her, and she has to save herself and her child by beefing up and training for the inevitable chance to kick in his face. It's the kind of redemptive story with enough cynical revenge built into its attitude to appeal to jaded American audiences. The plot offers some of the same dramatic and suspenseful elements that you could readily expect from director Michael Apted, whose collaborations with several top composers had already tallied to quite an impressive list (including James Horner, Danny Elfman, John Barry, and Maurice Jarre, among others). He chose to reunite with David Arnold for Enough, another assignment that allowed the young British composer to break out of his type-cast 1990's sound of wild, orchestral bombast. In his post-2000 scores, Arnold was becoming less and less of the composer that fans fell in love with in that honeymoon period. Casual collectors of Arnold's works will immediately recognize that this is not Independence Day territory, and the style of music you get with this package is far from Arnold's early works (but not as far as Changing Lanes, though). Given the need for a suspense score that makes you jump every time a person rounds a corner, Arnold drops both the orchestral style of ID4 and Stargate and the rhythmic style of Shaft and Baby Boy for this endeavor. He does employ an orchestra for the project, but the majority of the duties is performed by Arnold's synthesized keyboarding and drum loop sampling, this time at a much slower, less hip, and deliberate pace. A fair amount of sound design is employed to maintain a suspenseful soundscape, though Arnold fans will recognize most of the sounds as being familiar to his other works. It's not spectacular listening, which is often the case for any composer's work in this genre, but Arnold offers enough impressive material hidden in the murky atmosphere of Enough to make it a hesitant recommendation. To appreciate the score at its best, you have to understand that it has two distinct halves, and one of them is significantly better than the other. Arnold's musical presence in Enough begins slowly, the early scenes of Slim and her husband scored with modest acoustic guitar and piano work that can occasionally drop to nearly inaudible levels of activity. These cues of marginal volume offer little to impress, although they do balance their pleasant, suburban attitude with a touch of distant electronic distortion, a move by Arnold, perhaps, to foreshadow the abusive future of the relationship. Likewise, as the album for Enough is arranged, the weakest cues are all clustered towards the beginning, so be sure to cut directly to the suspenseful explosion in "Get Out of the House" (and subsequent similar material) before judging the score as a whole. The scenes during which Slim and her daughter are on the run (and then training and preparing for the confrontation with the husband) are the easy highlights. Arnold kicks away the electronic droning and utilizes the synthesizers to establish a motivated rhythm in "Training Day" that establish a character of defiance and finally stirs the score to life for good. These rhythms, which pick up momentum and attitude as the score progresses, are layered with tense but harmonic orchestral accompaniment. Such parts of the score are extremely similar to the latter half of Tomorrow Never Dies, with the strings often accompanying metallically-toned rhythms. As the score reaches its climax, the orchestra is elevated to its full potential, with a troubled, but still satisfying crescendo in "Fight Club" that rivals the power of Arnold's great action scores. Between the inspired rhythms of preparation and the harmonic orchestral statements in the chase sequences and finale, the score eventually develops a triumphant and positive personality. Such occurrences are rare in the suspense genre, and especially for the plot of a woman fighting alone. Thus, the album can be recommended to Arnold fans who wish to create a solid atmosphere with low-key, stylish music that will attract closer attention in its extroverted, latter half. For mainstream listeners, be aware that the wedding song, "Today's the Day," by Aimee Mann, is not on this album. Nor are any Lopez songs, and Varèse Sarabande made a funny habit in the early 2000's of printing that revelation right on the back covers of the albums for films which feature the actress. Overall, Enough is not only functional, but a pleasant surprise. *** Track Listings:
Total Time: 44:36
All artwork and sound clips from Enough are Copyright © 2002, Varèse Sarabande. The reviews and notes contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Filmtracks Publications. Audio clips can be heard using RealPlayer but cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 9/11/03, updated 2/18/09. Review Version 4.1 - PHP (Filmtracks Publications). Copyright © 2003-2013, Christian Clemmensen. All rights reserved. |
