Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #1,971
Written 1/3/12
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Buy it... as a heartwarming and affable extension of the movie's
hopelessly optimist tone, Marc Shaiman clearly in his comfort zone for
this spirited, dramatic comedy romp.
Avoid it... if any kind of unique variation on Shaiman's standard,
fluffy techniques for wholesome orchestral writing is what you seek.
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| Shaiman |
In & Out: (Marc Shaiman) The topic of homosexuality
had finally penetrated the mainstream of Hollywood in the early 1990's,
led by the heartbreaking success of Philadelphia. Credited with
finally breaking through the orientation barrier in the wholesome comedy
genre was In & Out in 1997, assembling an incredible cast to
finally push issues pertaining to homosexuality to genuinely funny ends.
Kevin Kline is a high school English teacher who is about to marry a
co-worker (Joan Cusack in an Oscar-nominated role) but is "outed" right
before the week of the wedding by a former student giving his acceptance
speech for his own Oscar win on television. The chaos that ensues tests
the teacher's resolve, and with the help of a gay reporter played by Tom
Selleck, he finally comes to accept his orientation after saying "I'm
gay" instead of "I do" at the altar. The reaction of small town America
to all the attention brought to it by this high profile incident is the
source of much of the story's humor, and references to real life events
(such as Tom Hanks' own acceptance speech in which he thanked prior gay
acquaintances) and screen classics (including the Sparticus show
of support at the end) keep the environment very light-hearted. Aside
from Cusack's painful but hilarious ability to sob uncontrollably,
perhaps the most lasting highlight of In & Out is a ten-second
kiss performed by Kline and Selleck. On the serious side, the movie
remarkably made its statement about the acceptance of homosexuality
without actually being overtly sexual in any way, the result of careful
crafting by a crew consisting of a fair number of gay men. Among these
was composer Marc Shaiman, perhaps the most notably well known
homosexual composing for major feature films and whose wicked sense of
humor is legendary in the industry. It's painful to perpetuate the
erroneous stereotype that gay composers tend to write some of the
fluffiest romantic music in existence, but in Shaiman's case, that just
happens to be the truth. If you need extremely positive, sappy,
major-key and treble-happy orchestral music for a light comedy or drama,
Shaiman has proven himself the master of that sound on countless
occasions. His knack for parody is also respected, though In &
Out was the kind of assignment that required little more than the
composer's most common syrupy tone and he delivered that sound to
perfection.
Anyone closely familiar with Shaiman's career will be
able to hear the music for
In & Out in their mind before actually
playing it for the first time. The standard orchestral ensemble is light
on its feet and bubbly in its expressions, developing motifs of slight
comedy but sticking mostly to a dramatic ambience. The pleasant,
tingling sincerity of "Wedding Preparations," prominent harp lines of
glowing hope aplenty, devolves into panicked rhythms of prancing strings
and woodwinds in "The Morning After" and "The Bachelor Party," the
latter cue exploding into a brief and humorous statement of Shaiman's
main rhythmic motif from
City Slickers near the end. The
composer's main theme and rather frantic "action" motif undergo
significant stress in these cues, but never does the tone ever darken.
For all the chasing that occurs in these cues, there's nary an extended
moment of dissonance to break the breezy mood. Even in "I Don't,"
Shaiman parades with snappiness straight from Rachel Portman's
The
Road to Wellville, though the pair of "Mom & Dad" and "Cameron &
Emily" finally slow the pace down with pretty woodwind interludes over
tingling percussion. After a brief reference to the "People" theme in
the final cue (which sounds very much like the sappy melodrama that
Shaiman might himself conduct at the Academy Awards), a hearty ensemble
performance of the main theme closes out the score with predictable
warmth. Only about 24 minutes of score material is included on the
40-minute album for
In & Out, but that quantity proves itself to
be well suited to the demeanor of the music. It's a redundant score in
many ways, the only exception being the source-like music for "To Serve
and Protect," a cue that proves that even when attempting to write a
serious dramatic cue of adagio-like proportions, he ends up emulating
the equivalent efforts of Alan Menken in terms of low genuine gravity.
The soundtrack is fleshed out by some of the prominently placed songs in
the movie, including, most appropriately, the "Macho Man" classic by
Village People that the cast dances to in the final scene. The other
entries are equally retro in style, but it's somewhat disconcerting to
hear Diana Ross' inferior version of "I Will Survive" rather than the
Gloria Gaynor original (though the updating of the disco tone is perhaps
a good thing). Overall, this soundtrack is a very likable souvenir of
the film, but it will offer nothing new of note for a collector already
owning a decent selection of Shaiman scores. If only some of the man's
spoken humor could have been hidden somewhere in a few of the
tracks...
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
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Bias Check:
For Marc Shaiman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.33
(in 12 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.17
(in 19,635 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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