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FILMTRACKS.COM
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW 
Review of K-Pax (Edward Shearmur)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you are attracted to a combination of vague references to Thomas Newman's
rhythmic devices for American Beauty and cerebral, borderline ethereal minimalism for
this intellectual drama.
Avoid it... if you expect the relative accessibility of Edward Shearmur's instrumentation to completely pull this score from a cold, quiet void.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
K-Pax: (Edward Shearmur) One the most anticipated films of the fall, 2001
season, K-Pax was the second cinematic adaptation of a decades old novel by Gene Brewer.
It explores the interaction between a patient in the Psychiatric Institute of Manhattan who seems
completely normal except for the fact that he insists on the fact that he is an alien visitor to
this planet, and his psychiatrist, who is determined to resolve what he believes must be a
traumatic event that has caused this behavior. With an ambiguous ending, audiences are left to
speculate about whether this special man is indeed an alien, or perhaps a Jesus Christ figure, or
Keyser Söze, or just one ordinary man with a strange personality. K-Pax was another crafty
career move for composer Edward Shearmur, reuniting with director Iain Softley after their
collaboration for The Wings of the Dove. His assignments in the previous three or four
years had included an eclectic collection of unusual films, including Charlie's Angels,
Cruel Intentions, and The Wings of the Dove, often the kinds of films you don't
recall the scores to very readily. The latter score mentioned was Shearmur's most widely
recognized work through 2001, though the controversy of his replacement score over John Ottman's
for Cruel Intentions remained a debated topic. Shearmur is a keyboardist at heart,
classically trained with extensive experience working with various rock groups over the decade
prior to his mainstream film music debut. It should come as no surprise that Shearmur's approach
to K-Pax is guided by both synthetic and percussive propulsion and his comfortable use of
keyboarding (usually on piano). Reviews of the film, as well as the press kits for the score
itself, compared his music for K-Pax to Thomas Newman's bafflingly cultish American
Beauty, a highly popular work at the time.
In some regards, Newman was, on the surface, a very similarly trained composer to Shearmur, but there are important differences between K-Pax and American Beauty that the critics and publicists needed to be aware of. Perhaps the Kevin Spacey connection was hooking them into that comparison. First, just because two scores exist in the same general level of minimialism and are both composed by similarly trained artists doesn't necessarily lead to a point of comparison. Keyboarded scores with only marginal orchestral accompaniment had become a cost effective method of scoring feature films, and producers seemed to think (for some silly reason) that it best represents the quirky side of modern urban life. If you want to extend the Newman scoring style of 1999-2000 to the broader scope of film and television music, then you would have found dozens of films and television commercials clearly imitating Newman's clunky American Beauty music at the time. The defining factor in this music always seemed to be the fact that these recordings sound like they're recorded underwater. Secondly, though, the K-Pax score is stronger than Newman's American Beauty in that it better captures the true spirit of its script. Newman had a tendency to wander off into a wilderness of instrumentation from which his music could not stylistically recover. Shearmur doesn't do that; he maintains the modern, urban sound without losing a sense of accessibility in his instrumental choices and rhythmic devices. Thirdly, Shearmur also provides some genuinely tender thematic material for K-Pax, which is something American Beauty certainly trouble conveying (and was an element of his writing that Newman had been struggling with, especially in the case of the ill-fated Pay It Forward). Shearmur's music for K-Pax ultimately does convey a touch of mystery and a grasp of the cool and collected attitude of Prot (the self-proclaimed alien). While there are similarities to American Beauty in instrumentation during K-Pax's more contemporary rhythmic cues, it wouldn't be surprising if the extent of that connection was related to temp-track placement during the production process. Like American Beauty, however, K-Pax is also restrained by both a shifty personality and a generally drab sense of minimalism on the whole. For a film with such intellectually engaging and borderline magical content, Shearmur barely scratches the surface when it comes to mystery and intrigue. In that regard, his quietly restrained soundscape doesn't produce a particularly interesting atmosphere for the film. The subtleties of the K-Pax score are largely underdeveloped, including the use of Melissa Kaplan's (Red Planet) voice, which makes a notable appearance in the extremely low-key "Sarah" but is otherwise a non-factor. The use of woodwinds to portray the flightiness of Prot is superb in concept, but unsatisfyingly applied in execution as well. The title theme's use is restricted, and even after listening to the entire album several times, it fails to cause the listener to look upward. In regards to the more extroverted, Newman-like passages, there will no doubt be some attraction to the style of the clunky waterlogged keyboarding and varied percussion that pulled listeners towards American Beauty. But the K-Pax story delivered so much potential for whimsical and creative music, however, and the fact that these sequences are inspired by American Beauty serves as an insult to the originality of the choices made for this film's music. On album, Shearmur's score has a few remarkable minutes of piano performances and other solo elements, but without more of those well enunciated sequences, the album slips away into a cold void of nothingness. The end product is a mixed bag, but for such a cerebral topic, this vaguely ethereal material is at least functional even if it doesn't turn any heads. ***
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 43:17
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert contains extensive credits, but no extra information
about the film or score.
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The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from K-Pax are Copyright © 2001, Decca Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 10/20/01 and last updated 2/10/09. |
