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Review of The Object of My Affection (George Fenton)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... only if you are either a Sting fan or you don't mind
somewhat outdated light rock music for a harmless drama/romance
environment.
Avoid it... if you expect George Fenton's score to exhibit the inspired, genre-bending intelligence of his larger career.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
The Object of My Affection: (George Fenton) There's
very little memorable about The Object of My Affection, a
Nicholas Hytner crowd-pleaser with inspiration taken from Stephen
McCauley's novel. The light 1998 drama is less remembered for its own
qualities as much as it is for the surprisingly improved big screen
performance of actress Jennifer Aniston, whose career hadn't provided
any success outside of her sitcom friendships. In The Object of My
Affection, she plays a social worker without any clear direction in
life, and after becoming pregnant by a boyfriend she doesn't intent to
marry, invites a like-minded gay man to live with her and potentially
help raise the child. As you could imagine, complications arise, though
the film never takes itself seriously enough to present any true drama.
It's because of this flaccid sense of relational crisis that the
somewhat serious message at the end of The Object of My Affection
doesn't strike a convincing chord. The film was a moderate success,
though it certainly didn't do any wonders for composer George Fenton at
the time. He didn't need the help, however, for his concurrent scores
for Dangerous Beauty and Ever After were both receiving
critical raves and/or commercial success. It's no wonder that The
Object of My Affection quickly disappeared from the film music
spectrum; Fenton's contribution to the film was predictable, constricted
in size, and minimal in length, with the soundtrack album for the film
offering only 26 minutes of regular score. The remaining ten minutes are
variants on Sting's contribution to the project, a rather weak song that
is varied in vocal and instrumental performances throughout the film and
album. Together the song and score are haphazard in their attitudes,
never latching on to a central theme or other sense of identity that can
often give these kind of fluffy romance scores a magical touch. The most
head-scratching part of The Object of my Affection is the fact
that Fenton, for his infinite talents in nearly every imaginable genre
of music, seems to write some truly insufferable contemporary
rock.
Fenton provides a surprisingly unsophisticated style for the urban setting of the film. His light rock music begins promisingly, with a pair of acoustic guitars offering his title theme in trademark romance fashion. But after the first score cue on album, Fenton unleashes the supposed coolness in light rock rhythms that rely on electric bass, electric guitar, electric organ, rock percussion, and other mechanisms that give the score just too much of an 80's feel to it. The occasional contributions by sax coincide with some stirring, more undated style of rhythms, but despite being very transparent in what he was trying to accomplish, Fenton falls into the trap of writing contemporary light rock sounds that just aren't unique enough to transcend from era to era and burst through the limitations of their own simplistic nature. Even the more mundane acoustic guitar portions are too predictable for their own good. A rather bland recording quality hurts a score with an ensemble as small as this; perhaps some vibrant ambience could have assisted the score overcome its flatness. Fenton's wide range of talents leads to a few classically-influenced cues that stand at total odds to the contemporary style. The waltz in "Schon Rosmarin" and the two 40's era jazz renditions of Sting's opening song aren't enticing enough on their own to pull you away from the rest of Fenton's score, and only serve to break whatever plastic mood the rest of the score is trying to establish. As for Sting's two performances of "You Were Meant For Me," it is rare to hear the artist so flat himself. No spark, no enthusiasm, no twist of life... nothing in either the construct of the song or his performances feature the convincing romance of his best previous works. That built-in solitude in his voice is simply not enough to carry a weak song, and the problem is compounded by a very poor recording mix of his voice with the underlying orchestra. In the end, you can hear exactly what the filmmakers, Sting, and Fenton were trying to do with The Object of My Affection. But despite going through the right motions, this is one of the rare projects where everything about the execution of those ideas falls flat in the inspiration department. While it isn't an offensive score (or pair of songs) by any means, there's simply nothing to recommend about the album. **
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 36:56
(track times not listed on packaging)
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert includes no extra 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 The Object of My Affection are Copyright © 1998, Pangaea Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 4/24/98 and last updated 3/27/07. |
