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| Arnold |
Enough: (David Arnold) In the 2002 domestic conflict film
Enough, Jennifer Lopez plays the role of "Slim" (ironic, given all of the
talk at the time about Lopez having her rear end artificially slimmed down), a
working class waitress whose life becomes seemingly perfect when she marries a rich
contractor and moves into the comfortable suburbs. Then, of course, the contractor
becomes an abusive wacko, the wife runs away, the husband and his henchmen pursue
her, and she has to save herself and her child by beefing up and training for the
inevitable chance to kick in his face. It's the kind of redemptive story with
enough cynical revenge built into its attitude to appeal to jaded American
audiences. The plot offers some of the same dramatic and suspenseful elements that
you could readily expect from director Michael Apted, whose collaborations with
several top composers had already tallied to quite an impressive list (including
James Horner, Danny Elfman, John Barry, and Maurice Jarre, among others). He chose
to reunite with David Arnold for
Enough, another assignment that allowed the
young British composer to break out of his type-cast 1990's sound of wild,
orchestral bombast. In his post-2000 scores, Arnold was becoming less and less of
the composer that fans fell in love with in that honeymoon period. Casual
collectors of Arnold's works will immediately recognize that this is not
Independence Day territory, and the style of music you get with this package
is far from Arnold's early works (but not as far as
Changing Lanes, though).
Given the need for a suspense score that makes you jump every time a person rounds
a corner, Arnold drops both the orchestral style of
ID4 and
Stargate
and the rhythmic style of
Shaft and
Baby Boy for this endeavor. He
does employ an orchestra for the project, but the majority of the duties is
performed by Arnold's synthesized keyboarding and drum loop sampling, this time at
a much slower, less hip, and deliberate pace. A fair amount of sound design is
employed to maintain a suspenseful soundscape, though Arnold fans will recognize
most of the sounds as being familiar to his other works. It's not spectacular
listening, which is often the case for any composer's work in this genre, but
Arnold offers enough impressive material hidden in the murky atmosphere of
Enough to make it a hesitant recommendation.
To appreciate the score at its best, you have to understand that
it has two distinct halves, and one of them is significantly better than the other.
Arnold's musical presence in
Enough begins slowly, the early scenes of Slim
and her husband scored with modest acoustic guitar and piano work that can
occasionally drop to nearly inaudible levels of activity. These cues of marginal
volume offer little to impress, although they do balance their pleasant, suburban
attitude with a touch of distant electronic distortion, a move by Arnold, perhaps,
to foreshadow the abusive future of the relationship. Likewise, as the album for
Enough is arranged, the weakest cues are all clustered towards the
beginning, so be sure to cut directly to the suspenseful explosion in "Get Out of
the House" (and subsequent similar material) before judging the score as a whole.
The scenes during which Slim and her daughter are on the run (and then training and
preparing for the confrontation with the husband) are the easy highlights. Arnold
kicks away the electronic droning and utilizes the synthesizers to establish a
motivated rhythm in "Training Day" that establish a character of defiance and
finally stirs the score to life for good. These rhythms, which pick up momentum and
attitude as the score progresses, are layered with tense but harmonic orchestral
accompaniment. Such parts of the score are extremely similar to the latter half of
Tomorrow Never Dies, with the strings often accompanying metallically-toned
rhythms. As the score reaches its climax, the orchestra is elevated to its full
potential, with a troubled, but still satisfying crescendo in "Fight Club" that
rivals the power of Arnold's great action scores. Between the inspired rhythms of
preparation and the harmonic orchestral statements in the chase sequences and
finale, the score eventually develops a triumphant and positive personality. Such
occurrences are rare in the suspense genre, and especially for the plot of a woman
fighting alone. Thus, the album can be recommended to Arnold fans who wish to
create a solid atmosphere with low-key, stylish music that will attract closer
attention in its extroverted, latter half. For mainstream listeners, be aware that
the wedding song, "Today's the Day," by Aimee Mann, is not on this album. Nor are
any Lopez songs, and Varèse Sarabande made a funny habit in the early 2000's
of printing that revelation right on the back covers of the albums for films which
feature the actress. Overall,
Enough is not only functional, but a pleasant
surprise.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
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| Bias Check: |
For David Arnold reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.53
(in 15 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.28
(in 44,963 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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The insert includes a note from director Michael Apted about
the score, as well as a list of performers.
