PRINTER FRIENDLY VIEW
(inverts site colors)

Giacchino's ensemble for Jojo Rabbit ranged from 22 to 35 players in size, led by string quartet, acoustic guitar, harp, piano, percussion, and sparse woodwinds and brass. The composer was in the midst of a period of time when he genuinely believed that "the smaller the orchestra, the more emotional the sound." (This score and Let Him Go not long after showed that he had trouble achieving emotional results with small ensembles, this approach frequently a hit or miss prospect for him.) Some minimal synthetics aide in atmospheres, as in "Don't Speech Your Pants," and adult and children's choir both contribute, the latter in almost source-like modes. Giacchino intended the score to be defined by his main melody for the boy and, to a lesser extent, a secondary one for the girl. But there is a surprising amount of totally disjointed incidental sideshows throughout that make the experience a tough one to swallow. Aside from the upbeat choral material for the boy's exuberant embrace of Nazism, you also have a plethora of ambient, rhythmic cues that are really annoying, ranging from "Rabbit Got Your Tongue," "How Jojo Got His Name," "Jojo's Infirmary Period," and "A Boy of Letters" to "The Adolf in the Room" near the end. The woodwinds in "Pickled Pink" and "Get to the Back of the HQ" are particularly atrocious while, conversely, "Gestapo Making Sense" and "A Few Too Germany" are extremely boring in their sparse depth. Bleak suspense material can be scratchy and unpleasant on strings in "The Secret Room," "Negotiate Your Heart Out," and "No Weak Jews." Some comedy does bleed into the score, as in the ridiculous harpsichord of "Proving Your Metal," and there are a few classical imitations here and there but nothing of much weight. One notable moment of better drama comes in the unique "Rosie's Nocturne," perhaps as a theme for mother, and this tone extends into the somber "The Kids Are All Reich" for a solo boy's voice. With these discordant ideas keeping the score off-kilter, especially with the stylistic variances in child-like instrumentation at various intervals amongst the darker cues, you're ultimately left with the thematic core as the only positive in the work, even if it is a flimsy one. Unfortunately, those themes never truly realize their promised potential.

The main theme is a slightly cheery waltz adapted for everything from marches to straight sadness later, underging a major transformation throughout the score just like the boy. Hideous woodwinds introduce the idea in "Jojo's March" over silly tuba and snare, with children's vocals in German praising fascism with uppity appeal. It returns in a very slight, starkly innocent duet led by flute in "Adolf Einleitung in Cheek" while flute informs obnoxious percussive action of "Catch the Antelopers" and "Grenade and Bear It." The theme shifts to guitar and harp in "A New Uni-deform" for very simple development, and the children's choir from the start returns in identical form in "From Poster to Postest." A guitar and piano swap the theme in "Mother Joker," turning from comedy to heart before a highlight ensues during the innocent piano with classical twists of phrasing in "A Butterfly's Wings." Even if the performance here technically emulates Up, the heart strings are missing. From there, the theme oddly disappears for a whole section of the film, finally recurring on piano and celeste in "A World to the Wise" for a very quiet moment. A reprise of the opening march opens "Jojo's Theme" but the "A World to the Wise" duet then takes over. The rest of the cue explores the warmer versions of the idea, culminating in a solo boy performance that is similar to "The Kids Are All Reich" for a charming conclusion. The theme for the girl, Elsa, is very elusive, mostly just a series of underlying progressions. Giacchino's lack of development here is really disappointing, as the two themes in the score needed to come together at the end in what's instead a major miss. This theme's hints are barely evident in the suspense of "The Secret Room," explored in its tonalities from chords only in "Beyond Questions" and "The Elsa Prophecy," and continued on meandering string lines in "A Few of My Shiniest Things." Her actual theme starts to congeal in "Elsa's Art Appreciation," though it's short-lived. That idea receives even more clarity in the whimsical "Allies Well That Ends Well" but dissolves back towards only its chords in "What Elsa is New" and "Nathan's Last Letter." The melody enjoys a brief moment on solo cello in "Elsa Behaved," however. In the end, Jojo Rabbit is a weird, incongruous score. The piano-led renditions of the main theme are the only cues you'll want to seek on album, the final "Jojo's Theme" a decent summary. Sometimes, though, the experiment just doesn't work.  **   @Amazon.com: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Michael Giacchino reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.27 (in 54 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.06 (in 26,433 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.

Total Time: 49:47