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FILMTRACKS.COM
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW 
Review of Only You (Rachel Portman)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if the music of Georges Delerue melts your heart and
you're curious to hear Rachel Portman's first and triumphant merging of
Delerue's sensibilities with the ideas that she would adopt as her own
standard for a successful career.
Avoid it... if any music chosen for regular re-use in beauty pageants is not your cup of tea.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Only You: (Rachel Portman) Pure romantic fluff, the
kind that graced plenty of films in the Golden and Silver Ages of
Hollywood, was becoming scarce by the 1990's. The 1994 fantasy-bordering
romance Only You was director Norman Jewison's attempt to
resurrect the funny, illogical aspects from his 1987 hit
Moonstruck and place them in lovable Italian settings. Jewison
pulls several elements from the Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck classic
Roman Holiday as well, including an imitation of the famous
"Mouth of Truth" scene and an obvious late 80's version of Hepburn's
dramatic features and short hair on actress Marisa Tomei. If you
couldn't buy into the flighty and predictable plot, then the film's
other major detractor, Robert Downey Jr. as a leading romantic man,
would tarnish the starlit magic. Otherwise, the unashamed affection for
hopeless romanticism is perfectly captured and perpetuated in the film
by composer Rachel Portman, who had received this assignment due to the
strength of the more dramatic early entries in her budding career.
Having only begun to introduce her lush, orchestral romance style to the
industry, it would be Only You that would propel Portman on to
such projects as Addicted to Love, The Cider House Rules,
and The Legend of Bagger Vance. Despite the film's failure to
meet expectations and the brevity of the score's length due to a
plethora of romantic, mostly Italian source songs in the production,
Portman's simple work for Only You would cause an international
stir. The lush portions of her work would be re-used for everything from
mass wedding ceremonies to national beauty pageant competitions,
creating a sound for the composer with which she would be forever
identified. The score is the most eloquent example of Portman's mastery
at using large (or potentially overdubbed) string sections of orchestras
to portray faith, hope, romance, and, ultimately, happiness. Whether or
not Portman's style is something you find listenable might depend on how
much of a hopeless romantic you are at heart, but nevertheless, Only
You epitomizes the style of Portman's music that earned her Academy
Award recognition and sustained her immense popularity for about a
six-year period.
If you're not predisposed to sappy orchestral romance with a slight hint of fantasy, then understanding the twenty minutes of score will require a viewing of the film. Regardless of the lack of chemistry between the leads, the undeniable charm of Faith and her fearless search for Damon in Venice, Rome, the fields of Tuscany and the Amalfi coast make for an irresistible backdrop for Portman's unrestrained music. Much of the emotional power conveyed by the film is supplied by Portman's score, which has both a straight orchestral approach consistent to the ensembles of her future scores along similar lines, as well as a sprinkling of Italian instrumentation. Two primary ideas inhabit Only You, and while the bloated romance theme is the obvious attraction for most listeners, a light-hearted chasing motif is almost as lovable. The film's chase scenes, highlighted by "I'm Coming With You" and "Running After Damon," are scored with a cute variation on the octave-happy rhythmic movements that Portman would provide concurrently for The Road to Wellville. Prancing percussion, snare rips, bubbly violins, and even some endeavors of the wood blocks to mimic the hoofs of running horses set the pace for a feathery oboe and clarinet theme that typically builds to a loquacious romantic idea from the full string section. The fantasy element is extended by violin solos performed tastefully by Christopher Warren Green, accentuating the melodramatic nature of the story and its Italian location with a gorgeously descending motif that is occasionally handed over to the high octaves of a piano. Green's contribution to the whimsical opening of the film creates a feeling of wondrous dreaming like none other in "Written in the Stars" (which Portman adeptly reprises in the first half of "Gypsy Blessing" to cover the fantasy element with a consistent blanket). Marking some of the moments of dejection in the film with teary-eyed sadness is both this violin and, in "Lost in Tuscany," an accordion and acoustic guitar as well. Similarly, Portman inserts the melancholy wanderings of a saxophone in "Gypsy Blessing," performing the theme of "Some Enchanted Evening," the Ezio Pinza source song used in the film. She extends similar source adaptation for the accordion in "Arriving at Damon's Restaurant." Always present during each cue, regardless of the major-key activities of the woodwinds and solo instruments, is the deep and lush accompaniment of the massive string section, which, as mentioned before, could otherwise simply be one that has been mixed over itself to produce a fuller effect. In either case, the resounding power that results from the strings' efforts transcend the typical John Barry sound and, even compared to Portman's later string-dominated efforts for more serious films, separates Only You from her other works. The soundscape in the score is very well balanced, further extending the appeal of the striking part of the score: the title love theme. Four full statements of this theme exist in Only You, including "Venice," "Positano," and the two finale cues, and these are the recordings that are pulled for usage for television spots and live events. The depth and sheer magnitude of the orchestra's performance of this theme, as simple as its construct may be, marks a milestone in the history of romantic film scores that will not be quickly forgotten. The brass section performs broad whole notes to accentuate the bass region in Barry fashion. Full-blown romance of this kind was a rarity in the 1990's, and this theme's performances would serve as a bridge in the 1990's between the mass of similarly conceived music by Georges Delerue in the previous decade and a score like Angel by Philippe Rombi in the 2000's. Sony's album for Only You features only a tad over twenty minutes of Portman's music, but every essential moment is provided. The collection of Italian romance standards is quite strong, though the more general sounds of Louis Armstrong and Michael Bolton bookending the album will likely be of greater appeal to mainstream listeners. The collection is considerably better than most song collections you hear on albums from the digital era. In the end, it was Only You that caused so many people to become fans of Rachel Portman's unique and delicate style. While her output in subsequent years gained her an Oscar and a major presence in Hollywood, even from her modest scoring abode in Great Britain, her majestic theme for Only You still stands as her crowning achievement. *****
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 45:44
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert contains a note about the film and its score and songs. Written by
director Norman Jewison in 1994, the part relevant to Portman's score is as follows:
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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 Only You are Copyright © 1996, Sony/Columbia and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 9/24/96 and last updated 2/9/08. |
