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Desplat's original music for The Shape of Water represents yet another situation in which the composer comes dangerously close to over-intellectualizing a score. There is nothing accidental about the composer's tone or instrumentation in this music, Desplat's knack for absolute precision on full display and appealing to a logical conveyance of particular emotional needs at each moment of the work. In this regard, it is brilliantly tactical while also striving to offer a sense of quirky, whimsical innocence to an otherwise potentially traumatic tale. On the other hand, Desplat completely fails to capture the magnificence of the fantasy involved, tackling the project with such overwhelming European sensibility that one cannot help but be distracted by how distinctly foreign the score often sounds, and not foreign in a productive way. The orchestral ensemble utilized is highly restrained until the score's later passages of action and overt romance, the woodwind section notably replaced by only 12 flutes ranging across that instrument's full spectrum. This was the composer's technique of addressing the concept of water, especially in the flowing, rhythmic formations often occupying those flutes. The piano actually functions better at this task of fluid movement, and it is prevalent here as well. Less impactful are glockenspiel and harp contributions. The two most obvious players in the score, however, are an accordion and Desplat's own whistling as representatives of the creature and Elisa, respectively. Unfortunately, neither of these choices makes much sense in this context, the accordion supposedly an echo of some South American origin for the creature but really only infusing a touch of French class into the equation. One has to wonder why Desplat didn't employ an inspired theremin in a romantic twist for the character. While the whistling may be a highly ironic choice of musical representation for a mute character, Elisa is heard doing just that in the film. Still, the tone of Desplat's whistling performances seems oddly disconnected with the tone of this story, a much better stylistic match for a topic like Suburbicon. These questionable instrumental choices will not bother some listeners who find the entire story so outlandish that a foreign musical tone, whether "European" or otherwise, will not matter, and the score does become more conventionally rendered in its third act. Once could definitely argue that the music's job was to lighten an otherwise dark film. But that dainty French tone may seem bizarrely misplaced to some listeners, and for good reason.

Another lingering concern about Desplat's writing for the romance genre is his aversion to conveying long, tonally simplistic lines that are emotionally accessible to a wider audience. The love theme in The Shape of Water generates more harmonic warmth in parts, and moments like the height of "Watching Ruth" cannot be discounted. There will be listeners, however, for whom this music simply will not touch in the same way that more melodramatically grandiose composers could by using saccharine extroversion. Desplat seems more content playing down his impact in the mix, understating his themes, striking subtle discord in his tonalities, and straying towards quirkiness rather than traditional ballad structures of maximized accessibility. As such, there will be a subset of listeners to The Shape of Water that find difficulty grasping the score's appeal. The brain tells you otherwise, especially in how Desplat takes Elisa's awkward waltz ("The Shape of Water" and, of course, "Elisa's Theme") and the creature's equally awkward theme ("The Creature" and "Fingers") and combines them into one, quite lovely identity that flourishes with delicate bliss in the pivotal cue, "Overflow of Love." The narrative arc of the music is solid in the thematic handling, but the instrumentation does inhibit it at times. The accordion transfers over to Elisa and the love theme, perhaps indicating the creature's affect on her, but the whistling doesn't go the other way. By the Elisa theme's performance in "A Princess Without a Voice," no evolutionary transition in the instrumentation matches what we see on screen. The music for the spy and thriller element in the story is rather limp compared to the romantic side, cues like "Spy Meeting," "Five Stars General," "He's Coming For You," and "Rainy Day" offering increasingly troubling string motifs familiar to John Barry suspense, and "The Escape" presents oddly out of place percussion layers far less applicable, despite the origins of the creature, than the straight snare rhythms of "Decency." Desplat's usual electric bass accents supply some gravity when needed, but this element exposes another troubling issue with The Shape of Water: its extremely dry and centered mix. For a fantasy film, this music is tragically flat, the spread of its instruments too condensed and lacking bass depth, and the ambience is frightfully dry. Some reverb for the watery atmosphere was definitely needed. Overall, Desplat's music will delight his ardent enthusiasts with its intelligence, but others will remain unconvinced by his questionable choices when confronted by what they may perceive as oddly disconnected precision. The score will either melt your heart or make you scratch your head.  ***   @Amazon.com: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Alexandre Desplat reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.39 (in 31 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.22 (in 16,383 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.

Total Time: 77:02