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| Portman |
The Lake House: (Rachel Portman) For people with
inherently analytical minds,
The Lake House is the kind of film
that makes you want to run outside and scream. A metaphysical romance
about two people who live in the same house on stilts in a lake is given
a wave of the magic wand, or, more accurately, a magic mailbox. The two
lead characters actually met on a bus with a bomb on it ten or so years
ago, and if you can forget that funny circumstance between Keanu Reeves
and Sandra Bullock, then perhaps the rest of the premise of
The Lake
House will work for you. Their problem is one involving a time
paradox, with both characters inhabiting the house at different times
periods (two years apart) and able to communicate between each other
only using the aforementioned mailbox. Logic tells us that two people
stuck two years apart in that nasty little dimension called time will
never intersect and have that silver screen kiss at the end of the film.
Such a parallel paradox is the stuff of a "tear in the fabric of the
space/time continuum" for Trekkies. But never mind that. And never mind
that neither character does any background research on their mysterious
otherworldly penpal. Never do they exchange anything other than written
notes. One could have made the other a ton money at the horse races,
too, but never mind any of that either. The ending was a little more
downbeat when the story was first released as
Il Mare in South
Korea in 2000, but along with the sappy American ending is an equally
lovely little score by composer Rachel Portman doing what she does best.
While defining herself as a master of romantic comedy and light dramatic
scores in the early 1990's, and gaining the accolades associated with
her popularity of the time, Portman has made a significant attempt to
branch out from the genre since 2000. Perhaps it's no surprise that she
hasn't been nominated for an Oscar since, with her career including
several failed attempts at action, thrillers, and other far more
unconventional genres. In her romance writing for pleasantly appealing
orchestral ensembles,
The Lake House is a blatant return to her
glory days in traditional style.
Fans of that readily likable romance style will be
soothed by the extremely familiar Portman sounds of
The Lake
House. A pleasant title theme meanders through the score on piano
and strings, stated in typical Portman beauty for the entire ensemble in
the opening and closing cues. The rolling piano rhythms flow with the
waves of the lake while the woodwind section flutters softly in the
wind... It all seems so appropriate whether you've heard it before or
not, and to her credit, Portman doesn't try to change an equation that
works for this circumstance. The layers of strings, diminished role for
brass, woodwind solos, and tender accents on harp are cookie-cutter
Portman, and in scores like these, you almost do a better service
analyzing the score in the ways that it is different rather than the
same. There are surprises both ways in
The Lake House, especially
in what's absent. The most disappointing aspect of the score is that it
has absolutely no sense of magic or mystery. Portman's best scores of
the last decade exuded an atmosphere of the supernatural, sometimes
through devious rhythms and usually through percussion. Given that we
have a film about a magic mailbox here, it's extremely surprising just
how sterile this score is, completely devoid of any the true spirit that
Portman has infused into her best romantic comedies through the years.
The resulting consistency in tone throughout
The Lake House is
easily its weakness, conceding the score's usefulness in the picture as
only a bland supporting element regardless of its harmonic appeal. There
are only a few slight moments of those faster Portman string rhythms
that helped her classic scores move with style; they are replaced with a
subdued acoustic guitar that helps the score gain some contemporary
traction. Two tracks otherwise worth mentioning includes "Il Mare,"
obviously named after the previous film and featuring a solemn cello
solo. The other is "Wait for Me," which ends with a striking moment of
dissonance for the film's one tragic element. On album, five rock songs
with styles from yesteryear are included (some might question the
conveyed sound given the film's 2004-2006 setting), followed by about
half an hour of score. Portman fans will find the score to be both
familiar and pleasant, but the lack of the supernatural element in her
overly conservative work here is disappointing.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
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| Bias Check: |
For Rachel Portman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.31
(in 30 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.26
(in 28,116 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
