Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #1,189
Written 5/25/01, Revised 12/31/07
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Buy it... if you're not sure which of Cliff Eidelman's light
dramatic scores of the middle to late 1990's to sample, for the title
theme from Now and Then is as beautiful as the composer's efforts
in the genre would get.
Avoid it... if you need more than simply a pretty Rachel
Portman-inspired title theme to justify your purchase of an otherwise
conservative, piano-dominated effort.
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| Eidelman |
Now and Then: (Cliff Eidelman) Director Lesli Linka
Glatter's chick flick about four friends who stick together from
childhood to adulthood was doomed by its ridiculously unrealistic
script. While the film was advertised based on the names of the four
adult stars, the girls that play their 1970 counterparts were the
highlight of the film. The story attempted to teach the same old lessons
about commitment, friendship, growing old, and other aspects of life
that never really resonated at any level. To firm up the film's appeal
to its intended audience, it's easy to get the impression that the
producers wanted Rachel Portman to write the score for Now and
Then. Failing that, they hired the young Cliff Eidelman, who was
departing from his first seven years of dramatic score composition to
embark on a discovery of fluffy comedies and romantic drama that would
eventually hinder his career. After several years of excellent
production in the early 1990's, Cliff Eidelman was beginning to
experience some road bumps in 1995. With the rejection of his other
score of 1995 (Picture Bride) and a year of 1996 during which he
would not score a feature film, Eidelman's Now and Then
represented the last of a yearly string of solid character drama scores.
Such scores would become very much the normal sound for Eidelman in his
late-90's production, a long cry away from his most popular and
bombastic days of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country and
Christopher Columbus: The Discovery, but Now and Then
would prove to be among the best of these later efforts. Still, in its
base construction, Now and Then is much the same as his companion
scores for Untamed Heart and One True Thing. The
distinguishing element of Now and Then is its gorgeous title
theme, tragically heard in full in only two tracks on the album. Between
"Main Title" and "On the Swing," there are five minutes of thematic
performances that will rival the beauty of most anything by the
composer, not to mention the similar works of Rachel Portman. The film's
moderate success propelled a popular song album for the film, though,
stealing most of the attention away from the short album featuring only
Eidelman's score.
While Eidelman does hint at the beautiful progressions
of his title theme in later cues, he does not embellish it with a fully
orchestral performance. In both its theme and underscore,
Now and
Then is a lighthearted and yet touching blend of Rachel Portman and
Thomas Newman, with the instrumentation of the latter shining through in
some of the clunky but enjoyable instrumentation of "Secret Meeting" (a
xylophone, specifically) and a few fleeting moments thereafter. Prancing
string and piano rhythms are saturated with Portman's sensibilities. If
you are a fan of this genre of Eidelman's works, then you also have to
enjoy his use of the piano. The second half of the score for
Now and
Then is dominated by solo performances of the instrument, and while
they may be muted and tame compared to other composers' piano-featured
efforts, they are always pleasant. Their simplicity makes for a very
easy, although completely background listening experience. Not often
does the piano roll with power, and Eidelman's tendency to accompany the
instrument with a woodwind of some kind is likely to please any Portman
fan; in fact, as you listen to more and more of Eidelman's scores, and
as his fans have discovered, his character dramas begin to sound
increasingly similar to the small scale Portman scores like
The
Closer You Get. Fortunately, with the story of
Now and Then
featuring more positive energy than the forthcoming
One True
Thing, those of you who were disappointed by the later score might
wish to investigate this one. The performances of the piano are more
vibrant and the orchestra Eidelman employs is fuller, with a brass
section. The later portions of
Now and Then offer a secondary
theme representing the pact that the young girls make through their
seances, and while these brief flourishes from the ensemble are
enjoyable, they cannot compete with the primary theme. The spring-like
exuberance of that title theme ranks it as one of the most upbeat
moments of Eidelman's entire career, and the five minutes of its full
performances here are worth the price of the album for any Eidelman
collector. If you can somehow acquire the title theme on a compilation,
then that would likely satisfy the majority of film music collectors, as
it is by far the one fabulous standout cue on album.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
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Bias Check:
For Cliff Eidelman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.29
(in 17 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.2
(in 8,864 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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