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| Desplat |
The Ghost Writer: (Alexandre Desplat) Despite its
widespread critical praise, the 2010 political thriller
The Ghost
Writer may be better remembered by the geneeral public as the
production delayed while director, writer, and producer Roman Polanski
was arrested for a 25-year-old sex crime and held under house arrest in
Switzerland. Regardless of the seemingly endless intrigue involved with
the famed director's checkered past,
The Ghost Writer retained
many of Polanski's trademark cinematic touches, especially in the flow
of clues to its perilous mystery. It's a film worthy of exploration for
its interesting cast alone, Pierce Brosnan playing a former British
Prime Minister (modeled clearly after his contemporary, Tony Blair) and
Ewan McGregor an accomplished ghostwriter employed to complete his
memoirs after his predecessor met a supposedly accidental demise. As the
Prime Minister becomes the target of war crimes accusations for handing
over terrorist suspects to the American CIA for torture, the ghostwriter
stumbles upon shady aspects relating to both that matter and clues left
behind by the previous writer. Love triangles and strained relationships
involving the Prime Minister's wife and assistant/mistress complicate
matters, and the latter half of the film deals out both death and
retribution with extreme malice. Polanski has worked with countless
famous composers from around America and Europe through the years, and
Alexandre Deesplat joined
The Ghost Writer to become yet another
of his collaborations. Desplat's developing versatility in the 2000's
has included several suspense scores ranging from frantic to snazzy,
some of which laced with intense interludes of rambling action. Knowing
these scores,
The Ghost Writer will not sound particularly
foreign to the ears of any Desplat collector. Just how paranoid and
disillusioning the music manages to be in its entirety is perhaps the
kicker, both to the benefit of an intellectual appreciation and the
detriment of a sane listening experience outside of context.
There is no doubt that Desplat immediately creates an
uncomfortable, prickly environment of rhythmic unease and disjointed
harmonies for
The Ghost Writer, nurtures and develops that sound
into even less pleasant variations as the tension on screen arises, and
only barely allows a sense of bittersweet resolution at the end. Film
score collectors in general will find similarities in technique and
character to Bernard Herrmann's multitude of similar assignments, both
in the unconventional instrumental handling and the fact that there is
almost no respite from the uncomfortable tone of the music from start to
end. The comparisons to Herrmann are clearly inevitable (especially when
one hears "The Predecessor"), though the score is still firmly rooted in
the musical style of Desplat's existing methodology, perhaps to a fault
for some listeners. Whereas the score for
The Ghost Writer
doesn't really attempt to establish its themes as dominant factors, the
emphasis on unusual instrumentation is overwhelming. Applications of
woodwinds in particular border on the realm of the bizarre, sustaining
the score's thematic passages with awkwardly puffed, bubbling, and
frantically staccato performances of bassoons below intentionally
unrefined higher woodwinds in the lead. Strings contribute disharmony in
their quietly unnerving ostinatos, shifting out of harmony frequently in
Herrmann fashion. Brass in unison is usually saved for the score's chase
and resolution cues, though a muted trumpet offers an obvious noir
sensibility. Percussion is exercised in even more abrasive staccato
movements, from harp and piano to Desplat's usual range of struck
metallic accents. Many of the first three sections' performances are
constructed to emulate the role of the drums (snare and timpani) despite
the presence of the latter group in some sequences. Desplat's famous,
pulsating electronic base tone is employed sparingly, though thankfully
pushed further back into the mix (as in the latter half of "The
Predecessor"). This collection of sounds is often overlapped with
discord in mind, only rarely allowing, as in "Lang's Memoirs," for
somewhat coordinated harmony in the ensemble to suggest any
warmth.
The score's main theme is buffered by several rhythmic
motifs for secondary elements that are fragmented and mutilated by
Desplat so thoroughly that they're quite difficult to pin down. The
theme itself is a strangely exotic idea, nothing you'd expect to befit a
British prime minister. Its nimbly slithering progressions are very
challenging to appreciate and, when torn to pieces throughout the score,
also troubling to nail down. Its fullest performances include "The Ghost
Writer" and a fuller incarnation in "Travel to the Island." Whether
including fragments of this theme or recurring rhythmic motifs,
The
Ghost Writer is a score perpetually in motion, not content to roost
in any single idea but instead shifting with paranoia through fresh
instrumental applications in constant rhythms to maintain forward
movement. Unfortunately, most of these cues fail to accomplish anything
tangible outside of unnerving the listener, a successful tool for the
unraveling mystery on screen but less than ideal on album. The action
cue "Chase on the Ferry" suffers from Desplat's typical inability to
sustain interesting full ensemble ideas of force for long enough to
merit standalone appreciation. Upon moments when the composer does bring
together the performing group into some semblance of resolve with
ominous gravity, the score becomes fantastic, however. These cues
include the better rounded, harmonious soundscape in "Prints" and the
very impressive climax in the final minutes of "The Truth About Ruth."
If only Desplat could maintain dramatic depth of this resounding power
for longer periods, perhaps in foreshadowing form though his scores, his
music would be far more accessible. His decision to poke the listener
with needles from the very start of the score causes the lack of a
building sense of tension that unfortunately ignores the successive
revelations in the investigation. Also, as usual, an extremely dry and
dull recording does an immense disservice to the instrumental design of
yet another Desplat score; some moderate, tasteful reverb could make
this score soar in parts. Instead,
The Ghost Writer is simply a
very effective tool of aggravation that will delight enthusiasts of
Deplat's attention to precision. But be forewarned of the relentless
paranoia that comes with that technique in this frenzied incarnation of
the composer's distinctive style.
@Amazon.com: CD or
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- Music as Written for the Film: ****
- Music as Heard on Album: ***
- Overall: ***
| Bias Check: |
For Alexandre Desplat reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.39
(in 31 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.22
(in 16,383 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
