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Review of Sex and the City 2 (Aaron Zigman)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you've ever wondered if a parody of Middle Eastern
film music stereotypes could be so blatantly offensive that it
transcends to racist levels, because Aaron Zigman creates a bizarre
musical dichotomy in this score that you may never hear again.
Avoid it... if you can't fathom replacing the tender, heartfelt piano tones of the prior movie's score with the broad strokes of Maurice Jarre's Lawrence of Arabia over rocking, contemporary pop loops.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
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. ***
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 45:32
NOTES & QUOTES:
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.
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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 Sex and the City 2 are Copyright © 2010, WaterTower Music and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 8/18/11 (and not updated significantly since). |
