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Review of One True Thing (Cliff Eidelman)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you already maintain a collection of Cliff Eidelman's
scores for character dramas and are open to his most subtle effort in
the genre, one that could play unintrusively while you read or sleep.
Avoid it... if you expect the vibrance that Eidelman usually provides to his themes for these films, or if you expect to hear the Bette Midler song featured in the film.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
One True Thing: (Cliff Eidelman) Films about how
families deal with a terminal illness in one of their own are not known
for much more than their exhibition of acting, and One True Thing
fits that mold perfectly. The performances by Meryl Streep, Renee
Zellweger, and William Hurt are noteworthy, enough so that the film
earned some praise in these regards, but they could not salvage a bland,
moderately tear-jerking script that forced the drama into an awkward
series of flashbacks. Based on the novel by Anna Quindlen, One True
Thing passed with only a moderate reception by audiences, though its
brutally honest depiction of troubled family life and the hardships of
growth and loss turned away much of the movie's potential residual
viewership and has since faded into obscurity. Almost equally ignored
was Cliff Eidelman's music and subsequent score album for One True
Thing. The project represented many turns for Cliff Eidelman, who
had burst onto the scoring scene in the early 1990's as one of the
potentially great composers of the following decades. While Eidelman had
written music for several heartfelt dramas by 1998, never had the young
composer produced such a minimalistic and intimate score for such a
major production. One True Thing would also serve as the last
motion picture score for Eidelman in the decade, and with the exception
of the television film Witness Protection a year later, One
True Thing would usher in a long drought of feature score production
for Eidelman. His career then would revolve around his work on
re-recordings with large performing groups, including the conducting of
suites and themes specifically meant for release on album. The light
character drama scores by Eidelman in the mid-1990's typically meandered
in the nebulous regions of somewhat aimless piano and string themes, and
although One True Thing follows the same general guidelines, it
differs from A Simple Twist of Fate and Now and Then in
that its primary theme never receives the lovely performances (either by
full ensemble or well-mixed solo) and therefore has no distinct
highlight. Among these scores, One True Thing is the weakest and
cannot be recommended before them.
For this assignment, Eidelman centers his musical output around solo piano performances and the sparse, but effective accompaniment of a very small orchestra. Because the film is so intense in its treatment of the characters in its story, the score doesn't break the near silence that the film requires at many points. It was theorized by listeners at the time of the film's release that a lush score could have better served the plot, yet Eidelman's delicate and deliberate piano theme is all that this film really needs. The title theme only barely registers in its expression of remembrance, its performances light in volume and subtle in development. The cue closest to being a concert arrangement of this theme exists in the piano and cello duet in "One True Thing." Because the title theme slowly repeats endlessly throughout the score, there is a satisfying enough cohesiveness to the music. An occasional cello or woodwind instrument joins in the statements of this theme, but the elegance of Eidelman's piano stands well enough by itself. The more playful portions of the score, such as "Halloween Carnival," are approached with the plucking enthusiasm of a typical Rachel Portman work, which is somewhat typical in this period of Eidelman's career. A touch of Thomas Newman's percussive rhythms in "Press Conference" are more distracting. Other than these few moments of excitement, however, the score rarely achieves much more volume than a solo instrument can provide. As such, the score on album is a purely atmospheric experience. Even in its more ambitious cues, One True Thing and its continuously tender theme can easily pass through its half hour of length without you realizing it. If you delight in heartfelt piano solos, such as the treatment that Patrick Doyle and Rachel Portman gave to similar movies at the time, then you might find this score to be an enjoyable accompaniment to a quiet activity (especially for those of you who enjoy listening to a very light score while reading). In these regards, this score is very similar to Eidelman's Witness Protection from the next year, which is equally somber in its representation of familial trials. As for the mainstream majority who watched the movie, this album does leave off the Bette Midler song, "My One True Friend," which initially caused a plethora of used copies to become available as people dumped it after thinking they would hear the song on the product. ***
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 32:34
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
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