Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #1,221
Written 10/10/08
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Buy it... if you've been longing to hear Rachel Portman's romantic
string writing of the 1990's once again, even if it breaks absolutely no
new ground.
Avoid it... even though you've enjoyed Portman's classics of the
1990's if you're looking for a score that takes that trademark sound in
any significantly fresh direction.
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| Portman |
The Duchess: (Rachel Portman) Films like The
Duchess, just the latest entry in a series of British period dramas
that goes back decades, seemingly regurgitate the same basic plot
elements and production values with only one thing in mind nowadays:
Oscar gold. There is no doubt that Saul Dibb's 2008 film is one such
arthouse venture with aspirations of mainstream success. Unfortunately,
it is the kind of film that is best suited to be one of the many similar
BBC television entries, despite its lavish art direction and costume
design. The story tells of the plight of the Duchess of Devonshire in
18th Century England, a time and place that doesn't smile upon the kind
of liberties that she seeks to explore in another otherwise
male-dominated culture. The story contains many of the elements of a
common romance novel, and there's enough naked flesh in the final edit
to prove it. Unfortunately, there's really nothing new to be seen in
The Duchess, begging for questions about exactly what was
supposed to make this production different from its peers. This
criticism extends without question to Rachel Portman's score. One of the
great disappointments in the world of film music in the 2000's has been
the decline of Portman's output after becoming the first female composer
to win an Academy Award in 1996 and redefine the romance genre in much
the same way that John Barry had accomplished in the 1980's. Her voice
was distinct and reliable, establishing a strong group of supporters
with her lush string-dominated sensibilities and passionate themes.
After 2000's The Legend of Bagger Vance, her assignments became
more varied in genre and the intensity of that romantic sound was
largely lost. Two relatively weak scores in 2006 and no activity in 2007
is followed finally by The Duchess, a score that bridges the days
of her late 1990's conventions with some of the darker material she
explored in 2005's Oliver Twist. Fans of the composer will be
pleased by this turn of events, even if she breaks absolutely no ground
in this effort. Conversely, detractors of that same career sound of
Portman should be warned. If ever there was a score that met every
expectation and didn't really need a review, it would be something like
this.
The ensemble is predictable. A lush string section is
joined by piano, harp, and cimbalom, though unlike many of Portman's
previous scores,
The Duchess is led by a cello soloist in a
fashion not much unlike John Williams' usual techniques. The string
section is also dominated by its lower ranks for this work, producing
the necessary tone of repression that exists in the film. The title
theme is very much vintage Portman, though her progressions are a bit
more melodramatically mainstream (which would have led to a better
possibility of adapting this theme into a song than, perhaps, her
previous works). The upbeat incarnations of this theme are accompanied
by the usual bouncy underlying rhythms by the second half of the
strings, with pleasing performances opening and closing the score. A
John Barry-like repetition of certain phrases in the theme (along with
hanging high notes) gives the theme an expansive feel, though there is
an intimacy and sincerity that is seemingly diminished when compared
especially to the similar themes for
The Legend of Bagger Vance
and
The Cider House Rules. In "Mistake of Your Life" and several
other cues, however, Portman takes the score in a more ominous
direction, highlighted by a somber, but enticingly elegant performance
of the theme on piano. Roughly a third of the tracks on the Lakeshore
Records album (that label has, over the years, become Portman's primary
commercial outlet) feature the kind of layered, harmonic volume that
provides an engaging listening experience. The remainder of the score is
surprisingly drab, exposing the album's length as one of its weaknesses.
The only outward moment of dissonance or disruptively troublesome tone
comes in the bass strings' menace in "Rape." Otherwise, much of the
score meanders without much to describe it. This is, like many of
Portman's scores, a largely redundant work, and when you subtract the
eight minutes of Beethoven and Haydn source material in the middle, you
end up with 34 minutes of music that likely should have been condensed
down to an album presentation of 20 to 25 minutes. Still, Portman could
be positioned to pick up another Oscar nomination for
The Duchess
if the film bucks its initial critical skepticism and manages to gain
traction with voters. It's a pleasant and nostalgic return to the days
of Portman's lovely romance writing, but that alone can no longer
attract top ratings.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
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Bias Check:
For Rachel Portman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.31
(in 30 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.26
(in 28,139 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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