Buy it... if you've always had a soft spot for the Jerry Goldsmith scores for Joe Dante films and seek the best that Basil Poledouris had to offer during the later years of his career (when dumb comedy assignments were common).

Avoid it... if you can't face a stripped down, sparsely orchestrated version of Poledouris' soaring spirit for Wind surrounded by cute, contemporary pop rhythms.

Poledouris

Kimberly: (Basil Poledouris) Everybody knew that composer Basil Poledouris loved writing music for anything having to do with boats and the sea. But what's amazing about his involvement with 1999's Kimberly is just how far he would go to do that. Poledouris' career was coming to an unfortunate close in the late 1990's and early 2000's, partially forced into retirement by a battle with cancer and dealing with a messy divorce from his ever-popular wife that led to an awkward personal relocation. Otherwise secure, Poledouris could pick and choose his assignments, which is why few people can understand the kinds of projects he accepted in his final four years of production. From Mickey Blue Eyes to Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles, little made sense about these choices. In the case of Kimberly, a terrible independent film with absolutely no purpose, you have to wonder if Poledouris loved any film having to do with boats to such a degree that he, on that fact alone, agreed to the project. To say that Kimberly was a terrible film is kind. It was so awful that it was repackaged by Ardustry Home Entertainment in 2005 under the name Daddy Who? for a dubious DVD release. Actress Gabrielle Anwar, whose career had already gone down the toilet by that point, plays the title role; she's the daughter of an Olympic rower who is convinced to be the trainer for a group of four Ivy League rowers who are, quite frankly, not competitive. Despite a pact by the men not to flirt with the trainer, she, being the irresistible slut that she is, fornicates with all four of them in a single weekend. When she is discovered to be pregnant, the four decide not to learn who's the father and together raise the baby as a family of six. There's a big racing sequence in the film, but who cares? Obviously, Poledouris did, for Kimberly seems on the surface to be a knock-off of Wind with a knocked-up girl. Ironically, despite the film's shortcomings, Poledouris wrote the best score he could given the budgetary restrictions of the project, and he actually did quite well. Among the dumb comedy scores late in his career, Kimberly is among the most enjoyable in a purely undemanding blend of light comedy and sparse drama.

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When Poledouris embarks on one of these tangents, his music becomes very similar to Jerry Goldsmith's efforts in the same genre, and Kimberly has several quirky Joe Dante-like film score moments. Poledouris creates a frolicing and bouncing main theme with the same lofty string technique that Goldsmith employs, as well as similar contemporary rhythms thereafter. The title theme is by far the most interesting aspect of the score, providing an inspirational tone for the rowers while maintaining a downright cute underlying rhythm for the romance. Simple and charming, the theme's performances are limited to a solo trumpet and flute over choppy strings and electronic percussion in the opening cue. The theme would appear three more times in the score, and as the main girl would prove unable to keep her legs together, the fluffy flute would be replaced by a sax and a continuing trumpet. For the pinnacle of the film's action, Poledouris would provide the theme in "The Race" with a heightened, robust depth in electronics and brass as almost a tribute to his Wind score. The same power isn't there, but the spirit is what counts. The title theme also exists on pleasant acoustic guitar in "Guy Montage" and is led by strings with the full ensemble in the final two cues. For the rest of the score, Poledouris limits the scope of the music to light pop rhythms, sometimes with frantic comical dances, and a fair share of uneventful underscore. Along with Mickey Blue Eyes in the same year, Poledouris proved his wit in the area of feathery parody work. The pop rhythms, accented by sax performances, are a positive aspect of Poledouris' talents; he could readily compose light and pleasant atmospheres for modern, urban characters, and there is a substantial amount of that talent on display in Kimberly. Some of the attitude from Free Willy's light-hearted, aquatic tracks is evident in the electronics. While not particularly noteworthy in the larger scheme of things, these tracks make for easy listening on album. That short album suffers from high range distortion in the mixing of the trumpet in "The Race," but is otherwise enjoyable. Don't expect miracles in Kimberly, but it's a charming score from a composer very late in his accomplished career. ***   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Basil Poledouris reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.47 (in 33 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.27 (in 32,977 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.