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The Notebook: (Aaron Zigman) An arthouse film from New
Line Cinema that has taken everyone by surprise with its sustained box
office success throughout the summer of 2004,
The Notebook is a
tender love story spanning the generations since World War II. It features
James Garner as a man who reads his own stories of romance to a similarly
aged woman at a nursing home, with the film transitioning between the
present moment of storytelling and the 1940's era of youth and romance.
Inevitable from the first moments of the film, it turns out that the
Garner's character and the elderly woman at the modern-day nursing home are
by coincidence the same two lovers from the heart of the 1940's story. Their
first encounter was separated by World War II, but they passionately
reunited seven years later despite realizing that their lives had taken
substantially different paths. Their meeting at the nursing home now allows
them to relive and tie up the loose ends of their youth. The wide release of
the film was met by critics who were somewhat weary of the syrupy nature of
the story, but $80 million in box office earnings later, the film has
survived because of the large population of die-hard romantics that have
embraced the film with great affection. The project was directed by
actor-turned director Nick Cassavetes, whose only notable (and recent) film
was 2002's
John Q, and his mother, Gena Rowlands, portrays the
elderly lady at the nursing home. Cassavetes once again hired composer Aaron
Zigman, with whom he had worked on
John Q, to write the score for
The Notebook. Zigman is relatively unknown as a solo composer, but
has been active as an arranger and producer for both the pop and film score
genres. His influence has likely been heard the most by score collectors in
such Disney scores as
Pocahontas and
Mulan. In the greater
scheme of things, Zigman has earned a better living by his involvement on
recordings by Phil Collins, Tina Turner, Seal, and half a dozen other
top-of-the-line artists.
In the orchestral arena, Zigman has composed multiple
concerts performed in the Los Angeles area, often resting along more soft
and romantic lines of writing. That style of work would prove to be good
practice for
The Notebook, which relies on passionate sentimentalism
for much of its length. A piano-dominated score, Zigman's work functions as
mostly a table-setter for the flashbacks in the film, drawing upon a wealth
of beauty and sadness for the scenes with the elderly couple. With only one
substantial theme for the film, Zigman's score both wins and loses points
for its consistency. What the film gains in that consistency through the use
of the same piano and string themes to eventually draw the younger and older
couple together is also somewhat of a detriment on album. An additional
aspect of the album not to be overlooked is the faithful inclusion of the
period songs used in the film. Several well known 1940's era jazz pieces
from Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, and Jimmy
Durante highlight the frivolous actions of the younger couple in the
flashbacks, and they instill the sense of excitement that the score fails to
achieve. This is certainly no negative comment on Zigman's work, since the
intent of his piano and string score was to accentuate the passion and
remembrance rather than stir us with his own 1940's adaptations. A lovely
score by all means, the Zigman portions of music do suffer from their lack
of development beyond the same set of performances of the title theme that
rotate in subtle fashion between sections of the orchestra. Only the "House
Blues" cue offers original score material outside the very comfortable realm
of Zigman's soft sentimentality, and serves as a welcome burst of pizzazz in
the middle of the album. That album does represent the film quite well,
although the score is understandably shuffled into the right places in
between the period songs. Because of the alternation between song and score,
Zigman's work can potentially become lost in the sounds of the songs, but
the score cues are fortunately long enough in each case to reestablish the
mood. Overall, the Zigman score is both pleasant and nostalgic, but the jazz
songs really do steal the show with their vibrance and diversity.
***
The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
