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Review of The Deep End of the Ocean (Elmer Bernstein)

FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:

Buy it... if you seek a soft, nostalgic, and sensitive tribute by Elmer Bernstein to the introverted personal style common to his early Golden Age years.

Avoid it... if you have no affinity for Bernstein's two most similar scores during the last eight years of his career, Frankie Starlight and Far From Heaven.

FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:

The Deep End of the Ocean: (Elmer Bernstein) Deeply flawed in its adaptation of Jacquelyn Mitchard's novel, The Deep End of the Ocean was soundly rejected by critics who correctly complained about the film's poor pacing and character development. In the shallow, rushed plot, a family loses one of its three children to kidnapping and is forced to adapt to life without a young boy. Many years later, the boy just happens across his former family when he unwittingly comes to their door asks if they need their lawn mowed. The boy has been raised by a nearby family who, in part, doesn't realize that he had been kidnapped. How the two families cope with the turn of events is the bulk of the story, and Michelle Pfeiffer's performance as the lost boy's mother was the advertising point for the production. Mediocre performance left The Deep End of the Ocean without much of a future, though its score by the legendary Elmer Bernstein has kept the production closer to the forefront in the minds of film score collectors. Bernstein turned 77 years old near the release of the film and 1999 was the composer's final full year of score writing. The quality of his music did not significantly decline in those late years, though while Hoodlum is perhaps the most impressive standalone work from that period, there is no doubt that the return to Bernstein's own dramatic works late in the Golden Age was a fitting way to cap off his career. Three scores together represent that lovely tribute to personal and introspective drama from the classic era: Frankie Starlight, The Deep End of the Ocean, and Far From Heaven. All three offer graceful themes and a genuine heart, a sound increasingly forgotten in the digital era.

At the time of The Deep End of the Ocean's release, Bernstein commented about the shift towards synthesized scores and lamented their lack of a personal touch. He specifically went out of his way to define The Deep End of the Ocean as a throwback score, stating, "the orchestration leans on musical sounds we associate with people rather than machines." The fact that Bernstein so explicitly rebutted synthetic film scores at this time remains an impressively defiant posture, even if this film would likely never have received such treatment. To favorably compare The Deep End of the Ocean to the equally beautiful Frankie Starlight and Far From Heaven should likely suffice for the majority of Bernstein collectors curious about this late entry. Bernstein's knack for perpetuating the Golden Age in respectfully restrained scores like this was a great treat in those final years, and admittedly this work's style is something of an acquired taste compared to the composer's later counterparts. There are hints of To Kill a Mockingbird to be heard in The Deep End of the Ocean, a testament to Bernstein's prolific career given the (more than) four decades in between the works. As expected, Bernstein relies on one elegantly sensitive theme for the score, heard immediately on piano at the outset of "Main Title." This theme is translated into a more jovial variant later in the cue (over playful snare and tambourine rhythms) and receives several lighter alterations as the score passes the theme between piano, strings, and woodwinds in its midsections. Listeners can expect a return to full ensemble performances in "Reunion" and "End Credits."

While The Deep End of the Ocean may technically seem like a monothematic score, Bernstein's ability to adapt it for the various concepts of joy and anguish is remarkable. In its progressions, the theme can flow with a grace that reminds of Jerry Goldsmith's The Russia House in its piano performances while also launching into spirited renditions on strings that remind, interestingly, of Mark Mancina's Twister. In tone, Bernstein proved once again that he was still among the best composers for the piano. The performances on the instrument roll and reflect in a masterful combination of loneliness and hope. The use of the ondes martenot by Bernstein was fading by this time in his career, and the instrument barely contributes to the distant background of a small handful of tracks. The suspenseful moments in the score, highlighted by the determined rhythm of "Photographs," revolve around sharp piano notes in the bass and strong tension in the middle strings. These are countered in the reflective cues by the use of a warm acoustic guitar and woodwinds that recall the composer's earliest years. On the whole, The Deep End of the Ocean is, as with many of Bernstein's other late small-scale scores, an atmospheric experience. It has nothing that will blow you off your feet, but then again, Bernstein's classic style has always been more subtle than most. The main theme is not as memorable as those for Frankie Starlight or Far From Heaven, but its soft, nostalgic, and sensitive renderings are the key. The album from Milan only runs 30 minutes in length, though the eight minutes of the opening and closing tracks are really all you need to supplement your Bernstein collection.  ****

TRACK LISTINGS:

Total Time: 30:04

• 1. Main Title (5:11) • 2. Brothers (2:33) • 3. Sam is Lost (3:59) • 4. Home Again (4:13) • 5. Photographs (2:25) • 6. Cecil (2:26) • 7. Giving Back (3:04) • 8. Reunion (3:06) • 9. End Credits (3:08)

NOTES & QUOTES:

The insert contains credits and the following note from Bernstein:

"The Deep End of the Ocean is a film about a family being held in a very delicate balance after the abduction of their youngest son. This causes a dysfunctional relationship between husband and wife and mother and the remaining two children.

Because the central character in the film is an absent child, much of the music and its instrumentation suggests child-like memories. There is a great presence of harps, bells and musical sounds which conjure up images of childhood. Although there is a general, and in my opinion regrettable, trend towards synthesizer music, such sounds would be inappropriate in a film which is about people and people's anguish. Therefore, the orchestration leans on musical sounds we associate with people rather than machines. Because of the fact that thereis a delicate balance in the relationships, the score is subtle and unobtrusive in an effort to support rather than disturb that balance."

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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 The Deep End of the Ocean are Copyright © 1999, Milan Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 3/19/99 and last updated 5/4/08.