Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #1,759
Written 1/27/10
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Buy it... if you have longed for Christopher Young's return to
straight-forward dramatic writing, in which case you'll be rewarded with
an elegant, undemanding score with plenty of emphasis on harmonious
meandering in the treble.
Avoid it... if you expect to be overwhelmed by any cue prior to the
last one, for those concluding six minutes are a melodramatic gem that
makes the rest of the relatively subdued score seem purely
atmospheric.
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| Young |
Creation: (Christopher Young) Even today, a decade
into the 21st Century, a movie like Creation has difficulty
finding a distributor in the United States because of animosity from
interest groups perpetuating the outdated notion that mankind was
created in six days by a deity. The British film was awarded the opening
position at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival but failed to
generate the kind of buzz necessary to propel such "thinking man's"
films onto major awards consideration. The life of famous naturalist
Charles Darwin is the topic of this somewhat fictionalized but basically
biographical examination, focusing attention on the events just prior to
his publishing of "On the Origin of Species." Darwin's work is
encouraged by his ten-year-old daughter and shunned by his religious
wife, and after the death of the girl, her supportive apparition and a
reconciliation with his wife (played by lead actor Paul Bettany's
real-life partner, Jennifer Connelly) eventually push Darwin to finish
his text and send it dramatically in the final scene to be distributed.
Mixed critical response and predictable resistance from active religious
lobbies diminished the impact of the film in theatres, the plot not
shying away from (or cleverly bypassing) controversy in its rejection of
doctrine. Directed by Jon Amiel, Creation thus became an
assignment for veteran composer Christopher Young. Best known for his
vibrant horror scores, Young has rarely avoided the opportunity to write
music for films unpopular with religious groups, though unlike the
freakishly fiendish and highly respected score for Drag Me to
Hell just prior, Creation is far more conservatively
rendered. One of the long-standing wishes of Young's small but very
loyal collecting base is his involvement in more projects like Murder
in the First and The Shipping News. Such films give Young the
rare chance to take the lyricism often morbidly conveyed in his horror
scores' themes and extend those sensibilities out to melodramatic
lengths. After balancing mostly between horror and hip, contemporary
jazz scores in the last few years, Creation is a welcome return
to the genre of drama for the composer. While not overwhelming in any
regard, the score is still refreshing to hear from Young's sentimental
side.
Underplaying the dramatic impact of
Creation
seems to have been Young's intent; nothing in this music would
underscore the important gravity of the text that Darwin was about to
unleash upon the world. Rather, his score seems to concentrate on the
man's relationships, comfortable in a tasteful role as pleasantly
evocative but relatively simple atmosphere for conversational or
contemplative scenes. The instrumentation is limited to a small
orchestra with emphasis on strings and woodwinds. Piano is present as a
frequent solo accent, and brass only comes into play in a few late cues
(in a purely supporting, but vital role). The movement of the score
often utilizes slight waltz rhythms, along with the use of a
glockenspiel a subtle reminder of the era. A hurdy-gurdy effect provides
slight torment to the environment when necessary. The thematic content
of
Creation is not spectacular, nor is it memorable, but it is
passed between piano, violin, and oboe with ease. The tone of the work
is rooted in the treble, often fluttering effortlessly with the help of
harp, flutes, piano, and glockenspiel, creating the uplifting but dainty
sound often associated with Alexandre Desplat's music at this time
(though nowhere near as dense). A four-note motif on woodwinds is
employed as an accent in several measures in the first half of the
score; it's intriguing because it exactly emulates James Horner's
equivalent in
Sneakers (which, more famously, transforms in the
minor into that composer's typical danger motif). Young affectionately
adapts passages of music by Christopher Gunning and Arvo Part in two
cues without attribution (outside of clever track titles), but these
contributions enhance the listening experience. For most of its running
time,
Creation is a pretty, largely harmonic score that will
likely fade into the background for most listeners. In "Knowing
Everything I Now Know," however, the themes of the score begin to truly
develop into the virtuoso violin performances that grace the conclusive
"Humility and Love." This final cue takes the instrument as far from the
deviant tone of
Drag Me to Hell as possible and, upon being
joined by the full ensemble, provides one of the single most redemptive
cues of any soundtrack in 2009. Only as Darwin expunges his inner demons
in "Humility and Love" can Young really allow the score to take flight,
but this cue alone elevates an otherwise subdued and uneventful 50
minutes on album into a certain recommendation.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
Bias Check:
For Christopher Young reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.48
(in 27 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.17
(in 10,921 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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