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A Perfect Murder
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Composed, Co-Orchestrated, and Co-Produced by:
Conducted by:
Artie Kane
Co-Orchestrated by:
Brad Decter
Jeff Atmajian
Electronic Score Produced by:
Jim Hill
Solo Vocals by:
Lisbeth Scott
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LABEL & RELEASE DATE
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ALBUM AVAILABILITY
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Regular U.S. release.
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AWARDS
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None.
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ALSO SEE
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Buy it... for the eerie main title cue and nothing thereafter
unless James Newton Howard's cold, ambient suspense techniques can do no
wrong for you.
Avoid it... if you expect Howard to have taken any substantial
chances in emphasizing the emotional swings of the film's intriguing
plot beyond the usual, basic synthetic atmosphere, stock stingers, and
understated orchestral motifs.
BUY IT
 | | Howard |
A Perfect Murder: (James Newton Howard) Although
widely regarded as a remake of the 1954 Alfred Hitchcock film Dial M
for Murder, Andrew Davis' 1998 thriller A Perfect Murder
only uses the same basic premise before launching in a different
direction. Criticized by some critics for diminishing Hitchcock's
original, the revision did manage to impress some reviewers with its
stage-worthy twists and turns of deceit. Smart casting allowed Michael
Douglas to easily fill the role of a Wall Street hedge fund manager
married to a much younger heiress played by Gwyneth Paltrow. When his
finances take a turn for the worse, he decides to continue financing his
lifestyle by arranging the murder of his wife by using her con-man lover
(Viggo Mortensen) as the tool. The two men take turns claiming to have
the upper hand, teasing the audience into falsely assuming that one has
true control over the other. Ultimately, the scared wife has to take
matters into her own hands in order to conclude the nasty game played by
the two men. The movie's intrigue managed to stir up substantial box
office returns, grossing twice its budget and putting the line "That's
not happiness to see me" in pop culture lingo. Composer James Newton
Howard had already enjoyed a successful collaboration with Davis that
included the Academy Award-nominated score for The Fugitive, and
he faced few challenges when approaching A Perfect Murder. Given
that the tale partially originated on the stage, there was little need
for a significant musical presence in the film. Howard's task was to
very basically emphasize the somewhat unrealistic environment of the
criminal plans at work, maintaining an uneasy ambient background for the
dialogue that takes the spotlight. Interestingly, Howard did little to
address the posh living conditions of the leading couple or the rather
seedy alternative lifestyle of the con-man. There are occasional
contemporary elements utilized in the score, though most of the
electronic embellishments of the orchestral ensemble exist solely to
replace an organic atmosphere with one of unrealistic haze. There are
only a handful of stalking and action scenes in the film as well,
meriting the occasional explosions of standard stingers. Howard's stance
in all of these situations is to play the story very coldly, never
making any attempt to infuse a false sense of warmth where one really
doesn't exist.
The ingredients in the music for A Perfect
Murder include a standard orchestral ensemble, common synthetic
ambient effects, a few contemporary elements such as bass and guitar,
and the solo voice of Lisbeth Scott. The latter two elements factor in
less than half of the cues for the score, mostly concentrated on album
in the first three tracks. The guitar and bass provide Howard's only
slightly abrasive modern infusion in "Ever Been to Be to Belize?" (track
title screw-up there) and "That's No Happiness to See Me," somewhat
heavy percussive loops and dull thumping sounds periodically reminding
of Howard's music for the "E.R." television series. The Scott
performances are the score's highlight, her voice offering one of the
few accessibly harmonic tones despite seemingly being digitally
manipulated to give her a chilly distance. That voice may represent the
wife's character in some fashion. For the attack sequences, Howard
chooses the tried and tested method of thrashing about with timpani and
piano stingers, owing a bit to Jerry Goldsmith's L.A.
Confidential when they form cohesive rhythmic phrases as in "He's in
the Kitchen." In the latter half of A Perfect Murder, Howard
seemingly recalls his own work for The Fugitive, the droning bass
string and clicking percussion techniques of sparse ambience returning
for long, dull periods. In the lengthy "Can You Ever Forgive Me?,"
however, he finally offers development for the score's primary
descending theme, voiced without much sincerity by an oboe. Late in that
cue, Howard's standard horn techniques for brazen solitude make an
appearance for a moment of gravitational pull. The oboe and slightly
warmer strings return with piano in "What Happens If...?," wrapping up
the primary theme in tepid fashion. With the theme barely registering in
volume and memorability despite several statements, the dreamy vocal
tones of "Main Title" end up being the only lasting highlight. This cue
also touches upon a vague ethnic tilt to parts of the score (similar,
maybe coincidentally, to James Horner's groaning bass effects from the
insufferable Jade) while merging the depth of the orchestra with
the best of Howard's percussive and electronic applications. Ultimately,
however, A Perfect Murder is the type of score that really serves
little purpose on album. Its 30 minutes of running time is largely
redundant and recycles techniques explored by Howard in far more
interesting circumstances elsewhere. Just as there is very little
likable character to the film's plot, the score struggles to engage the
listener for longer than just a few minutes.
** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For James Newton Howard reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.4
(in 70 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.36
(in 86,486 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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Total Time: 30:19
• 1. Main Title (2:57)
• 2. Ever Been to Be to Belize? (2:13)
• 3. That's Not Happiness to See Me (1:59)
• 4. It's Too Late (3:09)
• 5. Intruder (3:19)
• 6. The Attack (2:05)
• 7. He's in the Kitchen (2:55)
• 8. Safe Deposit Box (1:51)
• 9. Can You Ever Forgive Me? (6:09)
• 10. You Take Care (1:54)
• 11. What Happens If...? (1:51)
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The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
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