Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you can never get enough of Jerry Goldsmith's trademark brass blasts, drum machine hits, tense string plucking, and children's lullabies, even if those elements don't congeal into anything notably new in Malice. Avoid it... if you have no interest in hearing what strives to be, outside of the lullaby at either end of the score, a watered down version of Basic Instinct's suspense material. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
Malice: (Jerry Goldsmith) With a high caliber cast and the same stylistically gloomy photography that Gordon Willis provided for the films in the franchise of The Godfather, the 1993 thriller Malice scratches and claws in its attempt to mimic the intellectual complexities of a genuine Alfred Hitchcock thriller. After several revisions by multiple, independent screenwriters, the story for Malice took on a life of its own, with so many convoluted plotlines throughout its length that the film works simply on the basic fact that it keeps you scratching your head in bewilderment during every moment. Despite major logical fallacies, the suspect script is floated by acting performances of Alec Baldwin (in a fitting role as a surgeon with a God complex), Nicole Kidman (in the latter end of her poofy hair days), Bill Pullman (who actually beats that "hopeless nice guy" stereotype by the end), as well as enjoyable bit roles by veterans Anne Bancroft and George C. Scott. It's no surprise that director and co-producer Harold Becker would want to utilize the services of experienced composer Jerry Goldsmith for Malice. Many of the slick and crafty elements of the film were deemed to necessitate music similar to that heard in the recently Oscar-nominated Basic Instinct by the same composer, and, in the end, a watered-down version of the Basic Instinct score is exactly what Malice would get. Much has been said about how hard Goldsmith labored on his music for Basic Instinct; the model of suspense was perhaps less difficult for the composer to write than the incorporation of sensuality into that model. For Malice, all Goldsmith needed to do was to strip the sensuality factor out of the structures and instrumentation that led to Basic Instinct's thrill and add a token variation on the "Carol Anne Theme" from Poltergeist for devious reasons. The combination is minimally sufficient, and it gets partially lost in the film along with the parts of the story relating to logic, though Goldsmith's contribution is not very interesting apart from the film. In the composer's long history of producing ambient suspense music punctuated by bright blasts of rhythmic action, Malice is just one step above his insufferably droning, all-synthetic entries of the middle to late-1980's. Oddly positioned is Goldsmith's primary theme for Malice, a lyrical identity that once again plays to the sensibilities of a small child (there is one as an important auxiliary character in Malice), beginning with the style of a solo music box and evolving into a pretty melody for small adult choir. At first, this theme may seem to defeat the purpose of the film's demeanor, and indeed, when it opens the end titles after the horrific resolution of the film, it seems a tad out of place. But Goldsmith does temper the generally happy, free-floating major-key idea with distinct, percussive strikes later in the performances of the theme. The strikes are decidedly off-key, and their integration into the choral theme eventually becomes dominant as the voices and accompanying ensemble die off at the conclusion. Goldsmith does reference this theme at a few points throughout the score, but not without some effort to integrate it into the often minor-key suspense scheme that maintains a perpetually disturbed attitude during the entirety of the midsection. This suspense music in this middle portion shares many characteristics with the "traveling theme" and associated meandering in Basic Instinct, perhaps indicating temp-track direction. The balance between synthesizers and orchestra, with drum machines and tingling sounds of tapping metal often setting rhythms for the layered string section, remains intact from the previous effort as well. More distinctly, the piano rumbles in the depths of its lowest notes in almost identical fashion, too. A plucked string rhythm slowly sets the pace in many of the cues, foreshadowing the opening sub-motif of The Shadow. The only stand-out suspense cue in Malice is "Clues," a piece that opens with almost the same barrage of drum machine and brass blasts as "Unending Story" from Basic Instinct, followed by some of Goldsmith's better, tense string writing. The lengthy rhythmic cycles in this cue, stopping momentarily to quote the title theme, offer five or so minutes of outstanding Goldsmith thrill and action. The finale of the movie reveals its plot secrets in snapshot succession, causing Goldsmith to pull out several extended crescendos of orchestral hits with the drums at full volume. A brief moment of the composer's stylish piano tones at 6:15 into "The Body" lends a contemporary touch much like the end of Criminal Law. Overall, the main theme of Malice is enticing, and the "Clues" cue is a strong candidate for a compilation of Goldsmith best suspense music, but the rest of the score on its short album presents far more recycled ideas than novel ones. ** Track Listings:
Total Time: 33:30
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