Buy it... if you are a devoted collector of Rachel Portman's scores and completely forgive her obvious repetitions in dramatic style.

Avoid it... if you rid yourself of your copy of The Cider House Rules because it was too mundane in its predictably pleasant tones.

Portman

Nicholas Nickleby: (Rachel Portman) The late 2002 adaptation of Charles Dickens' Nicholas Nickleby once again tells the tale of a young man attempting to cross the boundaries of social classes in storied London to reunite his family (despite, of course, the interference from a number of colorful characters on the sidelines). The production served up a star-studded cast of names from yesteryear and tomorrow, and it was touted as an Oscar contender by its studio, which released the film to coincide with the Academy Awards nomination season. In the end, however, Nicholas Nickleby didn't gain the widespread praise in arthouse venues that was hoped for, and the film sank from its limited widespread release relatively quickly. Like Dickens' writing, composer Rachel Portman's music is usually highly predictable, and nobody was surprised to see her name ultimately attached to this story. For a project that would seem to be a perfect fit for composer Stephen Warbeck (who had tackled Shakespeare in Love and A Christmas Carol not long prior and was an international favorite in the field), an equally logical choice was indeed Portman, whose period comedy and drama scores are best known in the form of the Academy Award-winning Emma and The Cider House Rules. With a touch of comedic flair and lavish costumes, Nicholas Nickleby would require little new exploration of style from Portman, with the bulk of the material needing a pleasant tone, playful demeanor, and melodic heart. Portman's response to the film was to do exactly as you'd expect her to: reprise and rearrange her previous work to fit a similar picture. Her fans will recognize the characteristic sound immediately, and depending on your tolerance of her obviously repetitious styles, Nicholas Nickleby may be too much of the same. The score caused the question of originality to be raised once again: if a sound works well enough in a genre, does blatant repetition really matter? To Portman's collectors, it didn't seem to at the time, for the album performed reasonably well in its first few months of release. This fact reinforced the belief that Portman fans were inclined to purchase her music regardless of her lack of stylistic exploration.

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Still, even within the realm of Portman's tendencies, Nicholas Nickleby is a conservative effort. Its emotional range never varies very convincingly, with the cues of ominous tone (such as "Squeers Captures Smike") not really raising a believable atmosphere of tension. Portman's theme for the score is a hybrid, technically speaking, of the title themes from The Cider House Rules and The Legend of Bagger Vance. Some casual listeners will likely confuse the three of them. Part of the problem with the reuse of previous thematic fragments arises from Portman's habit of utilizing her themes so frequently in some of her scores that the situation is artificially exacerbated. Likewise, the chord progressions in her non-thematic material had also become predictable and extremely recognizable by this time. The only somewhat fresh sound heard in Nicholas Nickleby is the subtheme written for the Smike character, and in "More Jobs for Smike," "Squeers Captures Smike," and "Smike is Captured," you at least hear some additional depth in the bass string writing (addressing this theme) that breaks the mood of the constant violins and woodwinds. Both brass and percussion are highly marginalized for the effort, which is also typical of Portman's approach to these kinds of topics. Notable solo performances come from flute, harp and especially clarinet. Even Portman's most ardent fans will have to admit that Nicholas Nickleby is a case of just more of the same. But even having said that, she maintains a consistent level of pleasant, lush melodies, and some forgiving listeners tend to forget during the height of her themes that the material is recycled. As a listening experience, Nicholas Nickleby is a moderating, soothing, and easy album (to such a degree that it can almost be tuned out), though it will likely offer nothing to impress the casual film music listener. Unlike the previous Hart's War, there may be little reason for non-Portman collectors to give it a chance. The opening and closing tracks each serve as a good representation of the remainder of the work. Compared to her later, far more varied work for Oliver Twist in particular, Nicholas Nickleby remains anonymous and somewhat disappointing. No matter the context, however, this is still good music, and it may even impress those who haven't heard a Portman score before. ***   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

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.