Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you appreciate the finer details of any restrained score for a political thriller, especially when significant ethnic undertones spice up the mix. Avoid it... if extended sequences of ambient sound design and free-floating percussive ramblings aren't worth tolerating for ten minutes of truly interesting action and melodic development near the end. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
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. 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. *** Track Listings:
Total Time: 45:06
All artwork and sound clips from The Interpreter are Copyright © 2005, 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 4/27/05, updated 10/21/11. Review Version 4.1 - PHP (Filmtracks Publications). Copyright © 2005-2013, Christian Clemmensen. All rights reserved. |
