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| Giacchino |
The Book of Henry: (Michael Giacchino) Stunting the
directorial aspirations of Colin Trevorrow, 2017's
The Book of
Henry was a case of false advertising, if only because of its
wholesome, retro 1980's movie poster. While a drama about childhood
death and family grieving on one hand, the film is also a bizarre
thriller on the other, pushing disbelief by the audience to extremes. An
11-year-old genius, his younger brother, and their single mother live in
suburban New York with seemingly typical issues. When the older brother
suddenly becomes ill and dies, he leaves a book with his family that
details plans to save a young neighbor girl from her abusive father. The
remaining brother and the mother hatch a plan to dispatch the father by
killing him, and they actually come damn close to doing so. Viewers had
difficulty accepting the outrageously unbelievable plot twists that
witness the ordinary mom become an assassin in this scenario, the story
finding a cheap solution for resolution instead that downplays the
creepy transformation in favor of the villain's suicide and thus a sappy
ending instead. Battered by scathing reviews,
The Book of Henry
was a financial failure, further diminishing the reach of Michal
Giacchino's score, which ultimately didn't really help or harm the
picture. Continuing the collaboration with the director from the
Jurassic World franchise, the composer found himself scoring a
schizophrenic movie without a clear north pole, requiring familial
warmth at times but resorting to standard contemporary thriller
techniques at others. The shifting narrative put Giacchino in the same
position that he'd later find himself in during
Bad Times at the El
Royale and
Let Him Go, the music going from tender melodicism
to mundane thriller muck without batting an eye. In this case, though,
the themes manage to stick around more than the others, as do some of
the rhythmic devices related to the dead boy. Instrumentally, the work
is largely orchestral with piano and strings as the heart. Occasional
colors include acoustic guitar, which sometimes sounds like a ukulele as
performed, and synthetics for the darker passages.
The score divides itself between its melodic portions
and the generic suspense, the latter mode including synth droning and
scratchy strings that lead to a mild crescendo in "Predator in Their
Midst," really basic thumping in the low ranges during the first half of
"Research and Development," and ambient dissonant noise in "Shaking, Not
Stirred." These moments of lesser interest continue with nondescript
rhythmic stewing in "Forging Ahead," another annoying and whining string
crescendo at the end of "The Parable of the Talents," and the long and
bland "Susan for Justice" in its light thriller tones. Like most
Giacchino scores, this one is rather dry in its ambience, and it also
suffers from a lack of volume equalization between its two halves.
Thematically, there are actually some really attractive highlights to
The Book of Henry even if Giacchino doesn't always sustain them
in a positive light. The main identity, introduced by a deliberate
series of four chords that often recur on their own, is pretty and
propulsive for the genius, using piano rhythms and
Tomorrowland-like airiness in movement to yield a charming but
not very substantial ambience. Unfortunately, this derivative idea uses
the same three-note phrasing and harmonic base as the Jyn Erso theme
from
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, phrasing that also drove part
of the Yorktown theme from
Star Trek: Beyond. A mysterious,
descending secondary phrase is a highlight, but it only occurs a few
times. This theme starts the score very promisingly in its first two
cues, developing brightly throughout "Overture" on piano with its
rhythmic backing increasing nicely. It continues its delicately prancing
expressions on piano in "Treehouse Inventions," in which an acoustic
guitar takes the melody from the piano for added warmth and slight
exoticism. The idea then turns worried in darker harmonics in "Research
and Development" but still retains some magic. After its underlying
chords take the spotlight on celeste (or something similar) in "On
Mortality," it barely influences the central dramatic portion of
"Henry's Final Wish" before piano barely reminds of those chords in "A
Tender House Call." Giacchino sticks with the theme, though, allowing it
to flutter in pieces on piano during "Book Discovery: System of Abuse"
and pluck similarly late in "Do You Have Prince Albert in a Can?"
As the story gets bizarre, a solo cello carries the
main theme over synth ambience in "Target Practice," including the
aforementioned secondary phrasing, and the theme gains good momentum on
piano and percussion in the latter half in of "Peter's Lament." After
lacing the Graeme Revell-like string and synth suspense in "The Parable
of the Talents" the main theme's redemptive piano and cello duet in the
middle of "Peter the Great" is sweet, and that format continues in
softer tones during "Into the Fire." A second theme in
The Book of
Henry is more elusive, and it seems to serve everything from the
family's mission to the younger brother and finally the neighbor girl,
Christina. Utilizing ascending phrasing of hope that dances with
innocence and vaguely classical inclinations, this motif emerges on
restrained strings against the main theme's fragments in "Henry's Final
Wish." It turns rhythmic under more pieces of the main theme in "Book
Discovery: System of Abuse," a nice confluence of the two though not
really all that obvious. The rhythmic version of the idea slows at the
outset of "Do You Have Prince Albert in a Can?," and it's adapted for
the surviving brother on light plucking in "Peter's Lament." Guiding a
hefty, dark passage on strings in the middle of "The Parable of the
Talents," this mission theme flourishes at the start of "Christina's
Dance" but turns very dissonant at its height. The softer piano shades
return for relief at the end of the cue. It becomes very slight on piano
at the closing of "Susan for Justice" and opens "Peter the Great"
whimsically before the main theme. Neither idea really receives a
satisfying sense of closure at the end of the score, and that's a major
detriment to the overall package. Aside from the five to ten minutes of
alluring performances of the main theme in its cheerier moments, the
score doesn't really offer much unique attraction, the brief explosion
of bright percussive optimism in "Cheering Up the Mountain" a bit too
awkward to qualify. Listeners not enthralled with Giacchino's tendency
to underplay his hand at suspense will find the second half of the score
to be a bore. An original Stevie Nicks song is average at best and
unrelated to Giacchino's contribution. Two years after its initial
digital release, Quartet Records released the score on a limited CD that
eventually saw blowout pricing due to a lack of interest. There's just
not quite enough engaging material here to recommend, and with the theme
and suspense material both highly reminiscent of the composer's other
works, this one's easy to skip even if there's nothing blatantly wrong
with it.
** @Amazon.com: CD or
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| Bias Check: |
For Michael Giacchino reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.27
(in 54 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.06
(in 26,433 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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The insert of the 2019 Quartet Records album contains no extra information
about the film or score.
