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Review of Meet Joe Black (Thomas Newman)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you were whisked away by the romantic swirls of Thomas
Newman's score at the bittersweet finale of the film.
Avoid it... if you want to believe the hype that Meet Joe Black is that rare, truly heartfelt and consistent romance score from Newman.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Meet Joe Black: (Thomas Newman) Having spent an
eternity watching humanity and ending its miserable little individual
existences, are we really to believe that Death himself would be as
hopelessly uninformed and boring as Brad Pitt? Where was Christopher
Lloyd when this film was made? The story of Meet Joe Black would
have you believe in Pitt, and despite a solid cast and crew, very little
about the film convinced critics and audiences when it debuted in 1998.
Inspired by part of the plot of a 1934 movie, Death Takes a
Holiday, the story poses the question of what would happen if Death
spent a few weeks on Earth, enjoying the pleasures of humanity while
granting an old man a reprieve from his inevitable heart attack. The
film deals mostly with the love affair that Death has while human,
dragging the story to its own belated death after three seemingly
endless hours of running time. Pacing was the primary problem with the
film, with conversational cues taking forever to transpire, and while
the film eventually goes through all the right emotional moves, it lacks
the depth of character to enchant you. One of the technical aspects of
the film that was highly praised at the time was Thomas Newman's score,
hailed as a success due mostly to a grand use of orchestral theme at the
end of the picture. Newman had flirted on the outskirts of large scale
romantic dramas for several years, often including a flourish or two of
grand orchestral style in his scores for marginal films like
Phenomenon and The Horse Whisperer. His consistently
strong era of The Shawshank Redemption and Little Women
had their own remarkable collection of cues each, but Newman's fans
continued to wait for the composer to break loose from the restraints of
either the period or the darkness of those earlier projects and write a
purely heartfelt romance score. Some of those fans still insist that
Meet Joe Black was that score, though others disagree. One thing
is certain: Meet Joe Black is a trademark Thomas Newman score
through and through, saturated with the techniques and mannerisms that
have made him a collector's favorite in his more traditional orchestral
side.
There are essentially three parts of the Meet Joe Black score, two of which readily listenable and one that constantly pulls down the overall product. The highlight is obviously the wholesale offering of grand string romance, reaching its glorious crescendos of string harmony and bold brass counterpoint in the final two score cues. The sex scene of "Whisper of a Thrill" is a lengthy development of this theme that also includes the more mystical, percussion-tingling element of Death's persona that Newman explores a few times in the work (including the eerie "Served Its Purpose"). While the grand finale in "The Next Place" is a show-stopper, it suffers from a prolonged paying time that resorts to the doldrums of the atmospheric side of the score. Given the length of the film, it's no surprise that most of the cues from Newman are far less memorable atmospheric meanderings for woodwind, piano, and whispering strings. Lengthy passages of barely audible underscore are pleasantly rendered, but hardly interesting, especially compared to the swinging interludes of comedy. The faster rhythms of the light-hearted cues in Meet Joe Black are arguably Newman doing what he does best. Cues like "Fifth Ave." and "Everywhere Freesia" are joyful and dancing; the dancing spirit of "Fifth Ave." alone raises the score a notch and begs for more speculation of just how well Newman could replace Rachel Portman on many of her heralded works. There's an intangible element of enjoyment that shines in Newman's music when he combines his traditional and plucked strings in such jaunty fashion, and the personality of these short bursts of energy in Meet Joe Black attempt to steal your attention. The album suffers to some degree by its arrangement of a few classic songs amongst the score; their instrumental renditions eventually lead to a performance of "What a Wonderful World" that most unfortunately breaks up Newman's two strong dramatic cues at the end of the album. Overall, Newman provides all the right crescendos and themes at the correct times, but the score suffers from the same prolonged and largely hushed development that doomed the film. A lack of warmth in the orchestra's performance, harmed by a relatively dull recording quality (the opposite of The Shawshank Redemption's sharpness), cause Meet Joe Black to lack a genuine sense of romance necessary for it to thrive. ***
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 51:50
* Non-score adaptations
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert notes contain extensive credits, but no information about the score or film.
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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 Meet Joe Black are Copyright © 1998, Universal Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 12/11/98 and last updated 1/21/07. |
