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Marvin's Room: (Rachel Portman) A Scott McPherson
off-Broadway play,
Marvin's Room was translated onto the big
screen in 1996 by director Jerry Zaks. The film featured a blockbuster
cast led by Robert De Niro and Meryl Streep, with several awards
nominations spread among them for their performances in this project
alone. It is an intimate tale of a family estranged by distance and
brought together to take care of one another after a series of
unexpected medical crises. Along expected lines, the characters grow in
their harmonious union as the film progresses, and despite the rather
grim circumstances of their individual problems, the narrative also
features its fair share of black humor. A tear-jerker in the end,
Marvin's Room was the kind of assignment that was perfect for a
tender, heartfelt score from the British master of light romance and
drama music at the time, Rachel Portman. The year 1996 was best noted in
Portman's career as the one in which she attained her first Academy
Award nomination and win for
Emma. It was also a year that
yielded her dynamic music for the pseudo-musical
The Adventures of
Pinocchio, which broadly touched upon her typical, broad strokes of
compassion. While
Marvin's Room is a story set in contemporary
times, its score shares the same deeply rooted dramatic sense of love
and harmony as the one for
Emma, choosing to remain understated
rather than exploring too many overtly melodramatic avenues. At the
time, Portman's music was still refreshingly new, especially with
extensive re-use in public venues of her
Only You work from just
a few years before, and her critics had not yet really begun to assert
themselves in their argument that all of her music for dramatic arthouse
projects sounds too familiar. Looking back at
Marvin's Room, a
certain amount of repetition of style will likely hinder this score's
legacy, however. With Portman's predictable music for this genre, you
have to evaluate it as how well it uses slight instrumental or rhythmic
deviations to distinguish itself compared to the rest of her
works.
Portman's music for
Marvin's Room,
unfortunately, accomplishes nothing along those lines. To appreciate the
score, therefore, you need to be in tune with all of the basic elements
of the Portman style that would be best established in her
Oscar-nominated
The Cider House Rules. There is one distinction
to draw between these two styles of drama for Portman, however. While
her tendency to follow her sweeping themes with subsequently
uninteresting underscore is often the subject of debate in her later
scores,
Marvin's Room differs in that its material is at least
more consistent throughout. The score doesn't have the magnificent highs
of some of her works, but it is a more evenly spread listening
experience. Written with piano, strings, and woodwinds at the forefront,
she mixes (what sounds like) a saxophone into her steadier cues. With a
rumbling orchestral pace, a slightly playful bounce, a descending
background motif, and a habit of ponderously lingering on a note beyond
the suggested confines of its underlying rhythm, the title theme
performances offer the feel that inhabited James Horner
Sneakers.
The heart of the score does reside once again in the piano performances,
but
Marvin's Room is elevated from Portman's usually mundane
levels of pleasant harmony by her layering of all the performances.
Whether in mixing or inherent in the composition, the overlapping
instrumental performances in the score provide a texture richer than
Portman's usual work. This multi-level orchestral accompaniment keeps
the score energized for much of its length. On album, a decent offering
of score material will more than satisfy enthusiasts of Portman's
dramatic consistency. The title song is delicately performed by Carly
Simon, with an obvious connection in lyrics and theme to the film and
score. It's a rare occasion when the song, score, and film are a perfect
match, and they round out a pleasant album. A vibrant mix of the
recording, from the wet ambience of Simon's voice in the song to the
resounding tone of the piano in the score, is commendable. Overall,
Marvin's Room isn't a particularly special entry in Portman's
career, but it is no less a continuation of her appealing, dramatic
talents.
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| Bias Check: | For Rachel Portman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating
is 3.26 (in 28 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.23
(in 25,299 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
