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Moll Flanders: (Mark Mancina) Very little from
Daniel Defoe's 1722 novel survived the alterations of screenwriter and
director Pen Densham for this 1996 feature film only loosely inspired by
the literary classic. While most of the British location period films of
the mid-1990's were among the lighter variety of Jane Austen's pen,
Moll Flanders (along with
Restoration) offered a more
realistic view of the trials of life in the era, including a prominent
role for the plague. Only the name of the primary character in
Moll
Flanders is retained; her life in the book spans the world and
several distinct changes in occupation, but the film is narrowed to a
flashback narrative performed by Morgan Freeman to the leading
prostitute's daughter about the life story of the mother. Despite the
somewhat harrowing aspects of the story, an almost purely positive score
was submitted by aspiring Media Ventures spin-off Mark Mancina. While
Moll Flanders was a project likely suited best for the proven
talents of George Fenton or Patrick Doyle, the path to Mancina was one
far less expensive. And, in the production's decision not to allocate
the kind of funding necessary to the score, Mancina was not afforded the
luxury of providing
Moll Flanders with the expected orchestral
ensemble with which to appropriately convey the period of the film.
Mancina was showing considerable promise in 1996, with the release of
Moll Flanders held until the concurrent opening of his highly
anticipated score for
Twister, one of the summer's top
blockbusters. Unlike
Twister, however,
Moll Flanders
didn't receive much playing time in CD players, due in part to the
film's poor box office showing (despite decent reviews) and also due in
part to the problems inherent with any period score that is forced to
rely on synthesizers. Mancina was only provided with enough resources to
hire a dozen or so live instruments, and he stretched them thin over a
bed of restrained, but obviously electronic soundscapes that will bother
listeners to varying degrees.
Joining the electronics are acoustic guitar, a handful
of strings and woodwinds, Irish drums, and female vocalist. With these
accents, Mancina does an admirable job of breathing some life into the
otherwise stale synthetic realm. The construct of his score for
Moll
Flanders is quite good, building concertos for each character that
are, on paper, both accomplished and enjoyable. A title theme for the
primary character, introduced in the mid-section of the opening cue,
weaves throughout the score with easy harmonic resonance. A handful of
Irish jigs feature the collection of live solo artists at their fullest,
and are competently performed in "Moll's Jig" and "Sparrows." The solo
female voice opens the film and introduces the jig in "Sparrows" as
well, elegantly meandering with religious tones alongside synthetic deep
male voices heard most prominently in "Life Begins." With its pleasant
movements,
Moll Flanders features no qualms outside of the
abrasive "Devil Woman." The problem of the synthetics will persist with
many listeners, however, especially when comparing this score's
lightweight impact compared to James Newton Howard's
Restoration.
Being that its depth is entirely supported by rather mundane-sounding
electronics,
Moll Flanders suffers from the same cheapened sound
as made-for-cable period productions of the era, dooming it as a
listening experience for some collectors. Their difficulty enjoying the
score on CD will be compounded by a short running time --less than 30
minutes of score exists on the commercial album-- and the inclusion of
several classical pieces by Bach, Vivaldi, Handle, etc, that all feature
full and robust orchestral performances from other sources. When
comparing these pieces to Mancina's under-staffed score, the insincerity
of the score is only exposed further. A light and flowing song performed
by Sarah McLachlan over elements similar to Mancina's ensemble maintains
strong consistency between song and score, and is probably the highlight
of the album. While the score is well written, its rendering is simply
too frustrating to ignore, despite all of Mancina's best efforts to
emphasize the live soloists. A significantly missed opportunity.
*** Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download
| Bias Check: | For Mark Mancina reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating
is 3.1 (in 10 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.08
(in 7,086 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
