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Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you appreciate the wild, rhythmic and instrumental creativity of John Ottman's previous Incognito and seek an erotic twist on the same general idea. Avoid it... if you prefer meaty substance over clever, pseudo-noir style. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
None of the themes in Goodbye Lover is particularly memorable, but as was the situation with Incognito, the rendering of each idea is so enticingly original that you can't help but admire them. Many of the instrumental colors from the previous score return. The harpsichord, glockenspiel, saxophone, acoustic guitar, and piano are joined again by a brilliantly mixed array of percussive delights, including medium drums, tambourine, castanets, and other tingling and clicking effects that produce an extremely dynamic soundscape. Fluttering woodwinds often carry smart counterpoint to the themes, string ostinatos drive the cosmopolitan pace of the majority of the score, and resounding brass offer occasional blasts of enthusiasm. The contemporary elements of the score are beefed up using electric bass and electric guitar, with their most flamboyant contributions in "Rendezvous." Some of the synthetic effects are precursors to the highly stylish Point of Origin score that Ottman would define later in his career with musical imitations of an old-fashioned typewriter. This includes some of the clicking sounds and, more importantly, the high range synthetic choir that was frequently employed by Ottman for his lower budget scores. Rhythms ranging from a jazz swing to tango and waltz all propel the score with a wicked sense of humor. Thematically, Ottman provides almost an excess of themes for Goodbye Lover. The two, dull male leads aren't treated to much in the way of musical identity, but the three women are. The main character, Sandra (Patricia Arquette), is a psychotic piece of work, and Ottman defines her with a combination of devilish sexual appeal and child-like innocence. Her scheming and erotic side is represented by both the ostinato rhythms that prance with deliberate playfulness while harpsichord and glockenspiel perform the actual melody. These two devious ideas are introduced together in the opening minute of "Main Titles" and are frequently referenced on the first half of the album (with the help of some snazzy sax accents). The psuedo-innocent side of Arquette's character is given a slight piano theme, and in the "Main Titles" this idea is presented as an interlude to the primary melody. On its own, it receives two fleeting performances in "A Broken Heart." What's interesting about this theme is how Ottman can take its sensitive piano performances and use the sax and woodwinds as tools to give it an alluring edge (heard best at about 1:00 into "Main Titles"). Perhaps the most enjoyable aspect of the entire score for Goodbye Lover is the fact that Ottman plays upon Sandra's built-in obsession with The Sound of Music by quoting the first phrases of the classic "My Favorite Things" melody frequently on woodwinds during performances of her primary theme. The use of the famous melody as counterpoint to the original theme for Sandra is very smartly integrated. To hear fragments of "My Favorite Things" in a sexual environment is damn near worth the price of the album alone. Mary-Louise Parker's secondary character (though only slightly less of a sexual being) is given a theme that's often quoted in between the ideas for Sandra. Its delicately staccato flute-based melody is first heard in "Peggy's Story" and "Observations," though it receives some awesome brass counterpoint in "Rendezvous." A lower, descending woodwind theme for DeGeneres' cop is introduced in "Victims" and explored much further in "Crime Scene." On the whole, though, the themes for Sandra and Peggy are the main attraction of Goodbye Lover, for it is the mood of their performances that dominates the work. The recording mix is incredibly expansive, and because Ottman explicitly asked the ensemble to perform as "erotic" as possible, you clearly hear all the jazzy slurring and pulsating emphasis of each section trying, sometimes humorously, to meet the composer's request. On album, the score saves its more traditional orchestral cues of suspense for its latter half, diminishing its appeal after a dozen or so cues. But Goodbye Lover is still well worth the time of any collector looking for a composer striving for something different. You often hear Ottman at his best when he concentrates on clever style over meaty substance, an ever-intriguing, seemingly backwards concept that Goodbye Lover serves to prove. ****
The insert includes credits and the following lengthy note from Ottman about the score:
The score's mission was to let the audience know, with a wink of an eye, that they were allowed to have fun with this film despite the fact that characters are murdered along the way. Goodbye, Lover is a wry, delicious thriller that's hard to pigeonhole, and its music had to define this skewed world. I wanted the flavor to be playfully devious, mischievous and erotic, yet not at all goofy, as this would undermine the maturity of this different film. Sandra is a bad girl who really never considers what she is doing as terrible. I tried to make her theme reflect this bizarre symbiosis of innocence and malevolence. One of Sandra's many quirks is listening to Tony Robbins self-help tapes and also to The Sound of Music. So as an in-joke I built little "isms" from Rogers' & Hammerstein's score into her theme, mostly utilizing "My Favorite Things." Later in the film, every time Sandra's mischievous gears are turning, a repetitive motif loosely drawn from "My Favorite Things" plays, reminding us of Sandra's conflicted psyche, as well as cementing Sandra more strongly to her theme. The theme itself is comprised of three main elements I could draw from throughout the film: A string ostinato backdrop reflecting slyness and plotting; the main melody characterized by glockenspiel, harpsichord and piano with saxophone reflecting her playful naughtiness; and a melancholy secondary theme on piano addressing her child-like poutiness, (featured in the cue, "A Broken Heart.") All of these elements intertwined, especially in the opening titles, make up "Sandra's Theme." The highlight of the scoring process was asking the orchestra to be as "erotic" as they could be. I could tell this wasn't an often-heard request. Another off-kilter character is Peggy, played by Mary-Louise Parker. Her's is more of an "up-to-something" theme, characterized by staccato flutes accompanying her mysterious activities. In one scene, (the cue "Observations"), Peggy's and Sandra's theme collide at the end, as Sandra spies on Peggy. Ellen DeGeneres' Detective Pompano is a cynical character whose life is a sort of regretful purgatory. Although she doesn't warrant a major theme, I tried to use the scenes of Pompano's investigation as musical opportunities to enhance the audience's insight into her character. Many of these begin with the killer's murder motif (as in "Victims"), but soon merge into Pompano's music characterized mostly by piano and clarinet. The cue, "Crime Scene" displays Pompano's theme most succinctly, as this is when we're introduced to her. Yet as soon as she steps into Sandra's fray, the latter's music takes over, as every deed and its result ultimately boils down to Sandra, making her theme the film's signature. It was a lot of fun working with Roland and the team at Regency on this odd little film that for some strange reason was dear to all of us. Maybe we're all just a bit strange. Maybe." | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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