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| Portman |
Addicted to Love: (Rachel Portman) Although it
proves that Meg Ryan and Matthew Broderick don't have the same magical
chemistry that prevails every time audiences see Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks
together,
Addicted to Love never attempts to prove itself using
the inevitable story involving them. Instead, we're treated to dark
comedy about revenge, and so dirty and nasty are some of the jokes
pulled on the ex-lovers of the characters played by Ryan and Broderick
that you forget about the unlikelihood of their own pairing. The Griffen
Dunne film was intended by Warner Brothers to be yet another romantic
comedy vehicle for Ryan, and while the film was truly funny in a unique
(and occasionally bizarre) manner, it never really caught on with the
mainstream. Still, much about the production was as loveable and
adorable as both Ryan and Broderick tended to be in the 1990's, and the
fluffy heart under the grungy exterior posted by the characters and
their surroundings is conveyed with ease by Rachel Portman's score. It
is likely that Portman received the offer for
Addicted to Love as
a result, to some degree, of her stunningly effective score for the
romantic drama
Only You a few years earlier. The immense
popularity of that score had solidified Portman's credentials as one of
Britain's foremost light comedy writers, and her ability to conjure
convincingly airy fluff from an orchestra, seemingly on command, made
her a perfect choice for a film like
Addicted to Love. Another
important facet of Portman's abilities at the time was her equally
charming ideas for mischief, whether it involved the chasing rhythms of
Only You or the wacky instrumentation of
The Road to
Wellville. This latter style would play a far greater role in
Addicted to Love, because before the audience is treated to the
expected romantic discovery of the two leads as a couple, the film runs
through a series of practical jokes that tested Portman's ability to
keep up with their malevolence. Her music is intentionally comical to
such a degree that it will recall Carl Stalling's music for old Warner
cartoons, a style that was over-the-top even for Portman at the time. So
while the on screen action can get quite brutal between ex-lovers,
Portman's score always roots the film in the whimsical fantasy world
that had led to her Oscar win in the previous year for
Emma.
Portman wrote two primary themes for
Addicted to
Love, one for romance and the other for mischief, and the latter
theme is adapted into a variety of different bubbly and prancing rhythms
that move with the intensity of each act of revenge. The love theme is a
close cousin to the material in
Only You, indistinguishable in
fact for the non-Portman enthusiast. Its use in
Addicted to Love
is unfortunately limited due to the fact that the film doesn't outwardly
develop its love story until late in its script. A dreamy string preview
of the theme opens Broderick's sunny lifestyle in "Observatory" and is
joined by elegant piano accompaniment in "We're Even." The two highlight
cues are "Painting the Wall" and "Sam Comes Home," both of which feature
rambling piano rhythms that lead to beautiful string renditions of the
theme with broad brass backing (in other words, it's
Only You).
The latter, finale cue will induce goosebumps for the right crowd. This
theme goes through some tricky variations, including an innocent and
bouncing rhythmic version in "Sam's Charts" and a melodramatically
comical waltz-like variation in "Sam and Maggie Make Love." The second
theme, used in various depths of power and tempo by the ensemble
depending on the prank of the moment, is initially heard in "Water
Pistol Attack" and eventually builds throughout the film until a frantic
and percussively robust explosion for rambling bass woodwinds and tubas
in "Fight" (in other words, it's
The Road to Wellville). There
is a happy medium between these cues, and it exists in the short bursts
during "Walk Across the Street" and "Cockroaches," the latter among the
funniest cues with its snare rips and orchestral spasms of hysteria
following. Amongst these cues, there's the Stalling-like plotting music,
like "Back to the Plan." A direct nod to
Only You comes with the
faux-melancholy longing from an accordion at the start of "We're Even."
For the Portman collector,
Addicted to Love is itself addictive,
with an album that features thirty minutes of her score after eight
extraordinarily diverse songs that beg to be skipped. It's a predictable
listening experience, and while film score fans tired of her trademark
comedy romance sound will mock every moment of its length, it's evidence
of an artist who knew what she was doing, and the film is infinitely
more entertaining and grounded in optimism than it would be otherwise.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For Rachel Portman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.31
(in 30 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.26
(in 28,116 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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