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Review of The Painted Veil (Alexandre Desplat)

FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:

Buy it... if you are easily engrossed by lightly rolling, rhythmic movements for piano and strings, similar in style to the music of Philip Glass.

Avoid it... if the reliance on its piano solos and lack of any convincing element for the Chinese setting of the film betray the score's effectiveness.

FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:

The Painted Veil: (Alexandre Desplat) Few American films secure the right to film in China these days, but the filmmakers of The Painted Veil decided that no other location would suffice. Their perseverance paid off, for the film's authenticity in location is a key ingredient to the success of the character drama set against it. W. Somerset Maugham's love story in The Painted Veil is an unconventional one, showing the reconciliation of a married English couple that never should have been together in the first place. When forced on a journey in 1920's China, this couple (Edward Norton and Naomi Watts) help fight a cholera outbreak while attempting to salvage their marriage, challenging both the local customs and religious beliefs, as well as finding a glimpse of affection for each other that the two hadn't experienced before. The film played well to the arthouse crown in late 2006, but despite a handful of award nominations and a generally positive critical response, the film performed poorly at the overall box office. One bright spot for the film has been French-born composer Alexandre Desplat's music, which won the Golden Globe for "best original score" in early 2007. Desplat's rise to stardom has taken a path through both arthouse and mainstream films, maturing in 2006 with several acclaimed works. While his work for The Queen has garnered the most widespread support from mainstream listeners, The Painted Veil is a more cerebral, listenable, and arguably more interesting score for its film. Desplat employs the services of popular Chinese pianist Lang Lang and merges his performances with the Prague Symphony Orchestra. Other notable solo performances exist on electric cello, electric keyboards, and percussion, though none of those elements have as significant an impact on the score as the highly advertised piano performances.

Desplat's reliance on rhythmic movement in The Painted Veil has drawn much comparison to the work of Philip Glass, and Glass collectors will likely find significant enjoyment in parts of The Painted Veil. The primary thematic development in The Painted Veil is presented at the outset, with "The Painted Veil" providing all the noteworthy solos amongst a soothing, rhythmic flow of strings and piano. The consistent alternations of Desplat's rhythms, fixed in a fancy of flighty attitude, will remind of The Illusionist and half a dozen other Glass works, though Desplat does vary his movements to a greater extent from cue to cue. The title theme is a simple, elegant piece, if not understated, and is further explored in "Colony Club" and the entirety of "River Waltz" before losing some of its cohesiveness in the rest of the score. The waltz-like foundation of the theme sets it well in the time period, and the fact that the theme remains slightly elusive and cold in its early major performances serves well the distant relationship between the film's primary characters. The insertion of Erik Satie's "Gnossienne no.1" is equally frigid, unfortunately placed on the album where it breaks up two of the key early rhythmic tracks. These rhythmic pieces in The Painted Veil make up the enticing music; from the upbeat "The Water Wheel" to the determined "Walter's Mission" and harrowing "Cholera," Desplat's propulsive rhythms steal your attention from the remaining, comparatively mundane underscore cues. These cues translate into the longest tracks on album as well, providing twenty minutes of truly engaging music. The score does have its weak points, however, raising some intriguing questions about Desplat's thinking on the project.

Among its weaknesses, the score makes little effort to address the location of the story. The few exotic elements mixed in with the Prague performers are done so at extremely restrained gain levels, making the electric cello and flute performances useless (and barely audible in most parts). That cello is finally brought to the forefront as part of the outstandingly resolute power of "Cholera," though some listeners may find the use of a keyboarded bass in this and the two opening cues to be a bit distracting from the piano's delicacy (it's like a sliver of Syriana forced into a totally unrelated situation). The ensemble doesn't exude any convincing element of authenticity in the Chinese location either, begging questions about why a Chinese symphony wasn't employed (as has been done quite brilliantly in the past year by Shigeru Umebayashi and Klaus Badelt). It would seem on the surface that so much reliance was placed on the piano performances that the rest of the ensemble and its soloists were lost in the process; the resulting personality of the score plays to the sensibilities of London rather than Shanghai. The percussion solos near the end of "The Water Wheel" offer only a short taste of the necessary flavor. Finally, one other strange part of the score for The Painted Veil is its lack of punch in its final three crucial cues. At the end of the journey in the film, and the return to London, Desplat fails to follow the varied emotions of earlier scenes with equal resonance, allowing the score to fizzle into a wishy-washy fade over the course of several minutes. Overall, The Painted Veil is a good score, with easily enjoyable rhythmic passages that often last for several minutes at a time. But the score lacks all the intangibles, swirling around its piano performances without making enough of an effort to develop a true third dimension of convincing emotional grip.  ***

TRACK LISTINGS:

Total Time: 54:25

• 1. The Painted Veil (3:19) • 2. Gnossienne No 1 - written by Erik Satie (3:24) • 3. Colony Club (2:09) • 4. River Waltz (2:24) • 5. Kitty's Theme (3:08) • 6. Death Convoy (2:50) • 7. The Water Wheel (6:21) • 8. The Lovers (1:27) • 9. Promenade (2:06) • 10. Kitty's Journey (2:51)

• 11. The Deal (3:23) • 12. Walter's Mission (3:57) • 13. The Convent (0:52) • 14. River Waltz (Piano Solo) (2:27) • 15. Morning Tears (1:52) • 16. Cholera (4:23) • 17. The End of Love (4:36) • 18. The Funeral (0:53) • 19. From Shanghai to London (2:03)

NOTES & QUOTES:

The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.

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