Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #1,919
Written 1/25/12
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Buy it... if you don't want to live as Carter Burwell's normal self
for fifteen minutes, for his music in this movie is uncharacteristically
tonal, tender, and charming, a cleverly sinister and tragic approach to
the demented personality of the script.
Avoid it... if you expect anything in Burwell's counter-intuitive
approach to directly emulate the bizarre nature of the film's wacky
plot, especially in the small doses available on album.
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| Burwell |
Being John Malkovich: (Carter Burwell) There really
is no way that a movie like Being John Malkovich could be
summarized coherently in the introduction to this review of its music.
There are rarely productions as wildly unique as this one, the result of
a demented Charlie Kaufman script that postulates that a person can
enter a tube on a secret floor of a New York office building and live
the life of actor John Malkovich. The actor plays himself in this
fantasy tale, and he eventually discovers this bizarre portal and enters
it himself, producing one of the most awkward scenes in the history of
film. Running the portal is a destitute puppeteer played by John Cusack,
who becomes obsessed with using the tube as means of carrying on a
sexual relationship with the female co-worker with whom he charges $200
for anyone who wants fifteen minutes inside the portal. When his wife
(Cameron Diaz) ends up carrying on a transgender affair with the
co-worker instead, the situation becomes even more complicated.
Malkovich, among others, eventually seek to use the powers of the portal
to achieve immortality. Cameo appearances abound, throwing fantasy and
reality into a constant battle of wits. There really isn't much sense to
any of it, and Malkovich was initially horrified when he read the
script. Several studios flatly rejected the film's premise, though
Francis Ford Coppola assisted his son-in-law, aspiring director Spike
Jonze, in finding a studio (and Malkovich) and the project was widely
hailed as a success. Outstanding critical response led to several major
awards nominations, and Being John Malkovich has since carried
the label of cult classic with it. Because the 1999 film was a
relatively low budget production, its soundtrack wasn't a glamorous
affair. Aside from a song by Bjork and a couple of source placements,
the music of the film is defined by Carter Burwell's rather restrained
score. The film represented the initiation point of a collaboration
between the composer and director that included multiple entries over
the next dozen years. Burwell had risen to mainstream status earlier in
the decade but maintained a reputation for unconventional and
challenging writing styles. That said, he did write a subset of scores
that utilized a more palatable dramatic approach, and Being John
Malkovich and Gods and Monsters could be considered siblings
in that regard. Given how downright strange Being John Malkovich
can be, it's a bit remarkable how Burwell's score was applied as a
calming and connecting source of comfort in an atmosphere of pointless
psycho-nonsense.
Despite the fantasy element at work in
Being John
Malkovich, Burwell approaches it project with a surprisingly tender
and affable tone. There are singular moments of rushing suspense to
address the quick scenes of action or confrontation (most of which
confined to the more standard Burwell piano rhythms of "Subcon Chase" on
album), but on the whole, the score is content to remain positively
accessible in style. It is unusual for Burwell to write without infusing
the challenge of broken chords or atypical meters in his work, but that
trademark is nearly absent in
Being John Malkovich. The ensemble
consists of a moderate orchestra highlighted by gorgeously personal
piano. String layers, defined by sappy violins and yearning celli,
produce a deceiving sense of intimate tragedy in nearly every cue. The
score's dominant theme is expressed in "Puppet Love" and countless times
thereafter. Its slightly waltz-like movement and chamber-appropriate
rendering are sadly innocent in almost a creepy way, mirroring the
desperation of Cusack's character and his ultimate fate. This theme's
development seemingly spends its entire duration evolving into the
ultra-fluffy version heard in "Future Vessel," an appropriately
baby-like cue (complete with the rattling of an infant's toy as a
percussive effect) with xylophone and harp to address the new mind in
which the character finds himself trapped. Aside from this recognition
of fate in Burwell's tone, there isn't much narrative arc explored in
the score, the composer content to quietly convey tragic melodrama
without branching off into many diversions. The romantic sub-theme in
"Lotte Makes Love" (reprising the enthusiastic conclusion from
Conspiracy Theory) and Danny Elfman-like rowdiness of "Monkey
Memories" are the exceptions. Otherwise, the score is an awkwardly
beautiful listening experience, "Future Vessel" among Burwell's single
prettiest career compositions. Expect a very subdued, dreamy listening
experience on album, though, with less than 30 minutes of material
surrounded by two versions of the Bjork song (which better addresses the
bizarre tone of the film), a source licensing of a Bartok piece, and
"Malkovich Masterpiece Remix," which is the album's nod to the movie's
humor by taking the music heard during the scene in which Malkovich
enters the tube himself and layering it with contemporary rhythms and
quotes from other scenes in the film. The album, in the end, is a decent
souvenir of the film (especially with the mind-blowing insert notes
consisting of script excerpts), though Burwell's score by itself will
appeal to a different emotional need than the movie as a whole.
Regardless of its sinister undertones of tragedy, expect to hear few
entries more delightfully charming from the composer.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
Bias Check:
For Carter Burwell reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 2.84
(in 19 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 2.82
(in 11,704 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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