| CLOSE WINDOW |
|
FILMTRACKS.COM
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW 
Review of Being John Malkovich (Carter Burwell)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
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.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
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. ***
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 42:57
NOTES & QUOTES:
The "enhanced CD" features bonus materials and the packaging is filled with
useless blocks of text from the film's script. No meaningful information about the score
is contained within.
Copyright ©
2012-2024, Filmtracks Publications. All rights reserved.
The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Being John Malkovich are Copyright © 1999, Astralwerks/Virgin Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 1/25/12 (and not updated significantly since). |
