Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #568
Written 2/6/04, Revised 3/6/09
Invert Colors
Buy it... if your heart melts for every slight variation on Rachel Portman's
predictably light and occasionally exuberant thematic non-diversity.
Avoid it... if the perfect chick score for the ultimate chick flick, lead by
Portman's trademark strings, woodwinds, and piano, offers nothing to hold your
interest.
 |
| Portman |
Mona Lisa Smile: (Rachel Portman) If the story of 2003's
Mona Lisa Smile seems like an all too familiar feminine adaptation of the
"outsider teacher breaking conservative school norms to enlighten and progressively
guide stifled, young, rich students" mould, then you'd agree with many of the
critics who generally brushed the film aside. The project is, in many ways, a
gender-reversed version of Dead Poets Society and half a dozen other similar
films about conservative boarding schools, and director Mike Newell (who was set to
tackle a more famous school in the forthcoming Harry Potter and the Goblet of
Fire) worked to exceed audience expectations by inserting several Academy Award
caliber actresses into the cast. As a result, the film was finely crafted, but
ultimately left audiences with the "why bother?" question, and Mona Lisa
Smile slipped through theatres without much of a struggle. Part of the
overwhelming representation of sappy, conservative 1950's life in the film is
established by the music used to confidently paint that often majestic picture. In
between songs of the era, ranging from traditional to a more defiant collection of
"modern" cover versions, is an equally all too familiar, pleasant score by Rachel
Portman. To see Portman's name attached to this film warranted an immediate "well,
of course" kind of reaction, and her talents are indeed perfectly suited for the
lush campus and proper sensibilities of a 1950's female boarding school. While the
film does have its emotional ups and downs, it maintains a steady course of guarded
optimism, and if Portman addresses any kind of emotion better than all others, it
is optimism. After spending a few years finally branching out into genres of films
not present in her typecast career up to 2000, Portman fell very comfortably right
back into the realm of fluffy chick flick scores in 2003. Given the similarities
between all of these projects, one perhaps got the impression that she was simply
collecting paychecks in a state of artistic autopilot. In the most basic sense, if
Mona Lisa Smile sounds like the variety of chick flick that would bore you
to death, then be prepared for a score equal to that task. In every way possible,
Portman's music for the film is appropriate and heartening, flowing with ease in
between steady statements of an uncomplicated and familiar theme. Unless you are a
sucker for every slight variation on that light and occasionally exuberant thematic
non-diversity from Portman, then Mona Lisa Smile will drive you nuts.
This time around, Portman shapes a theme that mostly resembles
that of
The Cider House Rules (for which her sound was still fresh enough to
garner an Academy Award nomination), aided by a few slight swings of rhythm from
The Legend of Bagger Vance. Like
Nicholas Nickleby and countless
other innocent Portman ideas, this theme predictably starts with a single extended
note on key. At this point, most score collectors know to either run or keep
reading, because it needs to be said once again: if you have any problems with a
repetition of the same tender theme over and over again, then
Mona Lisa
Smile will indeed drive you nuts. Strings and woodwinds are accompanied by the
usual piano, with no depth this time from percussion or brass. As per formula, the
strings perform the delicately sweeping main theme, the woodwinds offer their
renditions of that theme during the majority of the underscore, and the piano
wanders in and out of a handful of secondary ideas during moments of heavy
dialogue. The few troubled moments in the film are scored with very simple
dissonant passages for the strings, and the entire project is supported in the
lower regions by occasional bass strings, and, keeping in character, the lower
woodwind instruments. The lack of emotional range in
Mona Lisa Smile will
reduce your opinion of the score even if you survive the repetitive nature of the
whole construct; the most disturbing moments in the score (heard late on the album
in "Betty Challenges Katherine" and "Why Couldn't You Let Me Be Happy?") usually
succumb to a lofty, major key performance of theme after a minute or two. Then
again, despite all this criticism, it's important to remember that Portman wrote a
pretty and effective theme and supporting score for this film, and you need to
accept the faults of the film when hearing its equally sappy music. For Portman
fans, cues such as "Bike Ride" and "We Will Never Forget You" feature lush high
string performances strong enough to stand among her best, and these cues are a
relief from a commercial album for
Mona Lisa Smile that only featured a
suite from her score (after the obligatory cover songs from the period). An
unsuccessful bid for an Oscar nomination led to a 30+ minute score-only promo from
the several studios involved, offering more than enough simple beauty from the
score to refresh any Portman collector and bore everyone else to death. If you have
to ask yourself if you're the target demographic for this score, then don't bother
wasting your time looking for the promo; it will, in case you didn't catch it the
first two times, drive you nuts.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
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 28,139 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
