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The Interpreter: (James Newton Howard) By 2005, it
had been a while since respected director Sydney Pollack had delved into
the political thriller genre, but with his similar films of fine quality
extending all the way back to
Three Days of the Condor, there's
always much promise in these ventures. The setting of
The
Interpreter exists at the United Nations in New York and involves a
fictional country based on contemporary real-life dictators and
political environments in the African nation of Zimbabwe. A U.N.
interpreter from that nation overhears a plot to assassinate its leader,
and this knowledge plunges her (and the American secret service agents
who help her) into a potentially explosive international event. With a
plotline of quality and the acting talent to back it up,
The
Interpreter was hailed as a project on par with (if not above)
Pollack's established quality of operation. If there is any one genre of
film which consistently provides for a better viewing on screen than a
listening experience on album, it's the modern political thriller. The
scores for these films are a difficult element to judge on their own
because the music for a project like
The Interpreter is often
atmospheric by demand rather than a larger participant within the film.
Not a surprise at all is the fact that composer James Newton Howard
landed on this project, for he is well versed in the two major
necessities for
The Interpreter: cloudiness and ethnicity. He is
no stranger to the idea of populating the dark corners of a tense,
character-driven film with a droning ambient environment (his
personality-minus work for
Michael Clayton even earned him an
Oscar nomination). Howard has also proven his ability to provide the
ethnic flair that a score like
The Interpreter could well use to
its benefit. The composer accomplishes this ethnicity through African
vocals and a wide range of percussion from half a dozen specialty
performers. While the African influence on the score for
The
Interpreter never explodes with the same outward expression as any
soundtrack with Lebo M. performances, per se, Howard does impress by
supplying any such ethnicity at all; it's a move that saves his score
from total obscurity. He adapts the traditional African hymn "Atolago"
into several cues, and it is, ironically, the most memorable thematic
element in the score and yields a remarkably poignant end credits
arrangement.
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Employing a decently sized contingent of the Hollywood
Studio Symphony for
The Interpreter, Howard doesn't aim to
capture your attention with either a dominantly melodic or an otherwise
motif-based structure. In fact, the presence of African drum rhythms,
often combined with the synthetic sounds of metallic tingling, rambles
throughout the score at various levels of intensity and provides the
only really necessary, minimal continuity between the parts. Despite the
size of the orchestral ensemble, Howard does not allow the ethnic
rhythms to combine with the full force of the group until the highlight
cue, "Zuwanie Arrival at U.N.," for which he provides a crescendo of
harmonic chord progressions at thrilling heights and pounding rhythms as
you witness the targeted African leader weave through New York in a
motorcade. It's strangely reminiscent of (but not as entertaining as)
Nile Rodgers' equivalent cue in
Coming to America, but in reality
it's closer to the crescendo of gusto Howard supplied for
Devil's
Advocate in a similarly dramatic New York street scene. At other
times in the score, Howard's use of the African percussion for the
purposes of suspense are of interest; in "Silvia Showers," your spine
will tingle as if an African animal hunt were in progress in front of
you. At other times, however, as in the prolonged opening cue, Howard's
textures are too minimally constructed with ambient sound design to
really appreciate alone. Several such cues follow, unfortunately
allowing some instrumental development for the characters to become
washed away in the lull. Slight motifs for piano and clarinet haunt the
primary characters as they investigate and are investigated, though none
of these moments will grab your attention. Distant African vocals do
spice up a few of these cues; the "Simon's Journals" cue offers a
pleasant harmonic combination of the vocals and ensemble. With a
respectful debut in "Drowning Man Trail," the "Atolago" melody shines in
Howard's "End Credits," a cue that beautifully summarizes all of the
score's ideas with the vocals, strings, guitar, and piano in solo
duties. Slight hints of
The Sixth Sense float in those piano
performances. Like
The Fugitive, the last cue is a thematic
culmination that finally conveys a satisfying sense of resolution.
Overall, Howard's contribution to
The Interpreter does spend a
significant amount of time languishing in the unexciting depths of sound
design and aimless solo instrumentals, but the "Zuwanie Arrival at U.N."
and "End Credits" cues, along with several short bursts of percussion
and satisfying vocal haunts throughout, will be a delight for any fan of
the composer.
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| Bias Check: | For James Newton Howard reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating
is 3.31 (in 53 reviews)
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(in 58,041 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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The insert includes a list of performers but no extra
information about the score or film.
