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Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events:
(Thomas Newman) Any author whose series of children's books can knock
Harry Potter off of the New York Times bestseller list is worthy of
considerable big-screen attention. The interesting trend of successful
children's franchises these days seems to be the fact that they are rooted
in morbid family tragedies, with the parents of the young heroes in both the
Potter and Daniel Handler's Lemony Snicket stories losing their parents in
terrible events while at an early age. But as treacherous and scary as these
new children's books seem to be, the kids just love them, and like the
Potter series, even adults have seemingly been ensnared by the novel premise
of
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. It's difficult to
describe what there exactly is to like about the story of the franchise,
other than the fact that three orphans (the oldest of whom is 14), manage
to use their wit and mysterious abilities to survive exploitation attempts
by greedy relatives who take them in for various unexplainable reasons.
Despite all of the persistently horrible things that happen to these three
children, they find ways to escape, strike back, and cope... no matter how
much you scratch your head and wonder where the grieving process was
supposed to enter the equation. The wackiness of the surroundings, from the
wandering time frame to the disjointed settings begged for a film adaptation
to be made with all of the best special effects and art direction that money
could buy. No doubt the first of a planned franchise of films,
Lemony
Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events features Jim Carrey as the most
memorable villain, Count Olaf, and throws hints of clues left and right that
will likely be solved in future films. For the music to the series, a
distinctly sophisticated, classical, but absolutely quirky approach would be
called for. After all, absurdity abounds. Finding either the classical or
quirky parts by themselves wouldn't be hard, but a wise choice was made to
hire the resurgent Thomas Newman for the task. A master of orchestral drama
on large scales, Newman is the same man who started a revolution of clunk
and rhythm with
American Beauty several years ago. Newman is
especially hot at the moment following his enormously successful scores for
Finding Nemo and the television series
Angels in America over
the past year. Many elements of the superior latter score would carry over
into
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events.
While the three children could very well deserve their own
sort of little triumphant theme given all of their successful escapes, no
such atmosphere is attempted here. In fact, Newman tackles the atmosphere
first and pays less attention to overall continuity and theme. Instead of
providing a more obvious element to represent the children, Newman creates
an easily identifiable set of rhythmic progressions that propel the story
from one cue to another, always maintaining enough rhythm to send you
floating along your journey. Very rarely --and usually in moments of awe--
does the rhythm stop to allow the string-heavy orchestra to make a
statement. To compliment the awesome array of visuals in the film, Newman
once again pulls sounds from a seemingly bottomless pit of exotic
instruments. These instruments enhance the rhythms in such a way that Newman
doesn't really need to do anything more. Entire minutes of the score can
pass without much excitement beyond the subdued, always-reserved rhythmic
progression. A different light instrument, whether plucked, struck, bowed,
keyed, or piped, seems to carry the rhythm in each rather short cue. Sound
effects often grace the rhythms as well, with memorable "creaking door"
sound (...more like a creaking metal gate) enhancing the Aunt Josephine cue
and transforming into an agonizing groan by "Interlude with Sailboat." The
lack of more vocals, in either sound effect or sung form, is a surprising
absence in a fantasy setting that could have really used them at the
forefront. The rhythm is key, though. Whether that rhythm is carried by
carnival elements in "The Marvelous Marriage" or by the chiming of a clock
in "Lachrymose Ferry," Newman's standard choppy rhythm is presented in all
the usual staccato ways, with abrupt notes announcing themselves strongly
and rarely holding a whole note. While most of the score slumbers along with
a limited volume, Newman really kicks it into gear in the final cues, with
"Taken by Surpreeze" combining the full orchestral ensemble to take the same
staggered rhythm to a more intense (and maybe even victorious) level. There
are few grieving moments, with the string solos in "Curious Feeling of
Falling" and the piano solos in "One Last Look" serving as part of the few
breaks from the rhythm that we get.
Indeed, the less consistent presentations of the rhythm
--or those cues in which the orchestra supersedes that rhythm-- are the
highlights of the score. The brutal "Attack of the Hook-Handed Man" cue,
with full brass that will remind of the Satan sequences in
Angels of
America, as well as the delicate secondary piano theme introduced at the
end in "The Letter That Never Came" are highlights. In fact, the beautiful
latter cue mentioned there presents us with the first true feeling for the
children beyond the tribute to the surroundings that Newman's quirky rhythms
seem to focus upon. A return to the bizarre instrumentation and clunky
rhythms in the end credits perhaps shows where Newman's true sensibilities
with the series exist, and that approach is perhaps best for the first story
in the series. Among the more interesting aspects of Newman's score is the
primary motif that he uses as the closest element to an identifiable theme
the score. Presented in the opening cue, the motif consists of a three-note
descending theme that repeats three times, certainly as a representation of
the three children. The score shines when that motif is utilized, as do the
cues in which Newman blatantly inserts his own creativity of sound effects
into the mix. The fake opening to the score and film, abruptly cutting off
the "Loverly String" song, is the kind of spirit that
Lemony Snicket
undoubtedly deserves. As the stories progress, and assuming that Newman
continues in the franchise, perhaps we'll hear more awesomely defiant cues
such as "Puttanesca" (almost a concert piece by itself), for the
personalities of the children seemed to be unfortunately underplayed by
Newman in this installment. In the end, the staccato rhythms that Newman is
fond of do great justice for the premise, and his creativity in
instrumentation and motif construction are commendable. There is an
intangible spirit missing from the overall product, however. There is no
dominant identity established for the series that, for instance, could play
across a commercial or trailer and be instantly recognized by children and
adults alike. At some point, you wonder if Newman's score for Daniel
Handler's events get too caught up in that spectacular atmosphere and forget
the young hearts fighting through it. Still, it's a strong concept score to
begin a probable franchise of films, and let's hope that the three children
are given more of a musical identity in subsequent films.
****
| Bias Check: | For Thomas Newman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating
is 3.2 (in 20 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.3
(in 50,023 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
