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The Joy Luck Club: (Rachel Portman) Vaulting to great
heights immediately upon its release, Amy Tan's best-selling 1989 novel was
destined for similar success in the arthouse film industry. With
extraordinary care given to the authenticity of Chinese culture,
The Joy
Luck Club is, on the surface, a tender tale of a group of
Chinese-American women in San Francisco who get together once a week and
play mah jong. These gatherings, though, are an opportunity for their
children and grandchildren, as well as the audience, to hear fascinating
stories about the histories of their families. In flashbacks, their
lifestyles in China come alive and awaken the audience to the intricate
social structures of China and how those lifestyles have evolved in America.
It is a film with a heart that is saturated with women's issues, and thus,
it wasn't surprising to see director Wayne Wang allow Rachel Portman into
this delicate process. At the time of the film's release in 1993, Portman
was not yet recognized internationally as a foremost female composer, with
only a substantial amount of British television scoring and a handful of
arthouse films to her known credits. When you look back at her involvement
in a film as pretty and well-mannered as
The Joy Luck Club, the fit
seems absolutely perfect. But when the film was released to critical
success, Portman went through an immediate phase of being discovered by
Hollywood... a process that would be affirmed the following year with her
most quoted work,
Only You. It could be speculated that only her
relative anonymity in 1993 (along with a strong field of competition) kept
her from her first Academy Award nomination that year. Nevertheless,
listeners noticed and identified with her fluid, sensitive style for
The
Joy Luck Club, a score that would establish her very consistent,
monothematic tendencies while also utilizing authentic Chinese instruments
in such a way that Portman fans would not hear over her style in the next
ten years.
In the sense that Rachel Portman's music for lovable
character stories all begins to sound alike after the third cue of each
score,
The Joy Luck Club is really no different. As film score fans,
you either fall in love with it or you don't. The tone of the score is
pleasant, the emotions are subtle, and her themes have a touch of
bittersweet sadness. This score marked the beginning of the deep, orchestral
romance --not in a lurid, Hollywood sort of way, but rather in a cultural
and familial fashion-- heard especially in the simple themes for strings
that Portman would litter her subsequent scores with. While the overall
style and primary theme is consistent with later scores, there are a few
differences between
The Joy Luck Club and Portman's other works that,
for some listeners, makes this score a superior listen. First, the use of an
erhu and other traditional Chinese instruments is a departure for Portman,
whose orchestral ensembles are typically unvaried. The erhu in particular
works well with Portman's thematic sensibilities, fitting in as yet another
variation of string sound in her string-dominated atmosphere. Also of note
in
The Joy Luck Club is the solo trumpet, something that Portman uses
sparingly in her scores, but is often warmly embraced as another welcome
variation from her norm (in, for instance,
The Legend of Bagger
Vance). A solo flute provides additional flavor in several cues. Unlike
some of Portman's scores, there are no outstanding cues in
The Joy Luck
Club that stand out in her career; the single theme and several
sub-theme motifs are nothing very refreshing to hear from the composer, but
the consistency of the slightly elevated orchestral presence --along with
the solos-- is what distinguishes
The Joy Luck Club. Never
spectacular, it is always better than average, and the album provides a
perfect length (45 minutes) of music from the film before becoming too
repetitive to enjoy. Many people hold this score dear to their hearts
because it was their first Portman experience --a sound very new at the
time-- and when placed in context with the film, the music is still
outstanding.
****
| Bias Check: | For Rachel Portman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating
is 3.33 (in 25 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.39
(in 23,761 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
