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| Zigman |
Sex and the City 2: (Aaron Zigman) After an
impressive fiscal haul for the first
Sex and the City film in
2008, the ensemble cast and crew reunited for another cinematic
extension of the famous HBO television show in 2010. While the plot of
its predecessor played like a straight continuation of the narrative
that had concluded during the series' run in 2004,
Sex and the City
2 furthers that arc while also serving as a more self-contained
story. This time, Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte, and Miranda take their
relational problems and fashion hysteria to Abu Dhabi for a working
vacation that goes awry when the women run afoul with local customs and
Sarah Jessica Parker's Carrie runs into fan-favorite John Corbett as
Aidan Shaw. Culture clashes produce most of the comedy, though the
government of the United Arab Emirates didn't find the production
pleasing enough to allow it to proceed there as planned (Roger Ebert
claimed that he was "gob-smacked by the delightful cleavage on
display"), so the filmmakers shifting photography to Morocco. The
reception to the movie was identical to that towards the first,
including disdain from reviewers and a whopping, loving embrace from
concept fans who rewarded the New York girls with over $300 million in
grosses (with an ever-increasing portion coming from outside of America,
a somewhat strange long-term twist to the franchise's appeal). Back for
the sequel is composer Aaron Zigman, whose career is full of light drama
and romantic comedy assignments similar to this franchise. His music for
Sex and the City is touching, concentrating on a piano theme for
Bradshaw and her husband, Mr. Big. Aside from some Latin flair and a few
bursts of contemporary light rock, the original movie's score is a
conservative bore. Even stranger is the sparing inclusion of Douglas J.
Cuomo's famous title theme for the show, incorporated in full only once
in the underscore. As usual, pop songs play a major role in this
franchise, though the same is true to only a lesser extent with
Sex
and the City 2. Because of the exotic location and the wider
spectrum of emotional needs in the sequel, Zigman was forced to write a
much broader parody score while maintaining as necessary his original
elements from the prior work. On the whole, this tactic yields a far
more diverse and entertaining score, assuming you can look past the
obvious melodic inspirations and Middle Eastern instrumentation that is
so thick in its saturation that it borders on being humorously racist.
Both of Zigman's
Sex and the City scores utilized surprisingly
large orchestras, though in
Sex and the City 2, you finally hear
some true, full-blooded adventure for the locale.
You also get a lesson about Middle Eastern instrumental
stereotypes, for Zigman plunders nearly every sound you could possibly
imagine for the region. In fact, one has to wonder if he intentionally
tried to further the offense of the United Arab Emirates by combining
these highly generalized tones with Western pop loops and other
rock-inspired elements. Almost all of the score pokes fun at the region
by assigning some ridiculous performance of one of these soloists into
scenarios they aren't commonly associated with. No place is this
frighteningly bizarre dichotomy more pronounced than in the "Divas and
Dunes" track that opens the score-only album for
Sex and the City
2. Zigman's melody for the location is a blatant, affectionate
rip-off of the main theme from Maurice Jarre's
Lawrence of
Arabia, conveyed in melodramatic strings as appropriate in several
cues. In "Divas and Dunes," however, this idea segues into the primary
phrase of Cuomo's series theme with Arabic flourishes to the
progressions and mournful solo female vocals that must represent either
the woes of Middle Eastern women when they look at these flamboyantly
offensive New Yorkers or Kim Cattrall's character's trauma when the
Emirates confiscates her hormone enhancement pills. Outside of this
fluid, overwrought theme, Zigman pours on the Middle Eastern flavor
mercilessly in the context of Western looped rhythms (except for the
source piece, "Hookah Lounge"), which clearly makes sense but is still
extremely awkward to hear. At times, he infuses the full orchestra into
this material, highlighted by explosions of panicked action in the first
minute of "I Have Condoms" and the middle of "Packing" that sounds like
an Arabian Carl Stalling imitation. Later in that cue, incidentally, the
exotic elements continue over harder rhythms that raise memories of
Klaus Badelt's
Catwoman. The two "Meeting Erin" cues suddenly
shift the flavor to a jaunty Irish jig for the nanny Miranda doesn't
trust with her husband. In "I'm Downstairs," a reprise of the first
score's love theme is hinted, and in "Phone Call" and the pair of "Home
Without Big" and "Big is Back," the pretty piano melody is fully
explored once again. It's almost awkward to suddenly shift back to the
tone of the first film's piano and harp-defined grace, but it's a
necessary wrap to the storyline of the two characters. Unfortunately,
"Big is Back" concludes the album with an unresolved hanging note that
is immensely unsatisfying. Overall, if you were bored by the
Sex and
the City score, then this sequel work will solve those ills, but it
does so with such a striking culture clash that it could actually
feature too much ethnic flair and thus leave you just as cold. If it
wasn't so damn awkward,
Sex and the City 2 would be a four star
score; as it is, it makes you grin sheepishly and move on.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
The insert includes a list of performers and a short note from Zigman.
As in many of Amazon.com's "CDr on demand" products, the packaging smells
incredibly foul when new.
