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Review of Sleeping with the Enemy (Jerry Goldsmith)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you have a soft spot for Jerry Goldsmith's airy,
delicate themes of innocence performed by solo woodwinds over lofty
strings and tingling electronics, regardless of the genre in which they
flourish.
Avoid it... if you prefer your thriller scores to actually thrill you, for the synthetic suspense material in this one is completely generic and unmemorable compared to the delightful beauty of the many lightly melodic portions.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Sleeping with the Enemy: (Jerry Goldsmith) Movies
about sexual obsession and formulaic stalkers have rarely started as
well as Sleeping with the Enemy does in its opening scenes. In
her first major role after Pretty Woman, a timid Julia Roberts is
emotionally and physically brutalized by her financier husband. He
flaunts her beauty at parties while abusing her as a servant at home,
and the early beachfront scenes in the film are filled with the promise
of a dramatic and thoughtful plot. But after the wife flees several
states away, tries to change her identity, and is confronted by the
terror of her husband coming after her, the film unfortunately morphs
into one of those cheap thrillers that hopes you actually believe the
villain is dead when he's got one last stab to go. Despite directing a
few cult favorites in previous years, Joseph Ruben missed the mark with
Sleeping with the Enemy, providing a stereotypical plot
reminiscent of Fatal Attraction and filled to the brim with
outrageous fallacies of logic. After being shunned by critics, the movie
still made impressive returns due to its star power. One element of the
film that was arguably somewhat awkward in the finished product was
Jerry Goldsmith's mostly upbeat score. The legendary composer had
transformed his horror scores from the grand scope of the
Poltergeist and The Omen franchises into electronically
assisted, less obvious variations for the smaller, more seedy horror
projects he would accept in the early 1990's. Surprisingly, despite the
film fitting this mould quite well, Sleeping with the Enemy has
little to do with the prevailing attitudes of scores like Malice
and Basic Instinct that were composed at roughly the same time.
The narrative of the 1991 movie required its fair share of suspenseful
moments and thud-inducing horror twists, but it is, at its core, a
melodic work that seems to indicate that Goldsmith was feeding off of
the beauty and hopefulness of Roberts' character rather than the
literally dark shades of Patrick Bergin's anger as his character
conducts his creepy pursuit.
As a result of the constant pull of the innocence of Roberts' character on Goldsmith's attention, Sleeping with the Enemy is a score with conflicting personalities. The dominant theme that Goldsmith provides for the wife is as consistently charming as any the composer had ever written. That is, for a drama or a children's film. And he doesn't try to fool you with its personality. The lofty woodwind solos over tingling electronics and high strings (and other lightly pulsating woodwinds) are just as gorgeous and soothing in the opening scenes as they are in "A Brave Girl" and at the finale of the picture. The theme and its instrumentation are absolutely trademark 1990's Goldsmith in style, and the simplicity of the melody, along with its repetitive use, will cause it to remain in your head long after the score is over. Some listeners are likely to associate its instrumental tone with the love theme from Star Trek: Insurrection. Goldsmith sometimes allows a slight variant of this woodwind theme to be carried solely by string layers, as in the middle portions of "The Funeral," and the dramatic progression of these performances will remind you of John Barry's shamelessly consistent dramatic techniques of the early 1980's (with similarities to High Road to China, coincidentally). The same cue also begins with a token nod to Bernard Herrmann's classic Cape Fear score, one of the greatest stalking/thriller entries ever in its effectiveness, including meandering, rising string lines, the tolling of chimes, and eerie pulsations from muted brass (seemingly French horns pushed to their highest ranges rather than the more conventional trumpets). The chimes in particular are an interesting device of cohesion in the score, mixed prominently and heard frequently at the forefront of the mix in the suspense sequences as perhaps a spooky reminder of broken marriage vows. Unlike Goldsmith's straight horror scores, in which the drums and brass often punctuate horror jabs with rowdy hits, the moments of horror in this circumstance are treated to abrasively groaning electronic clanging instead, with "The Carnival" and "Remember This" relying on uncomfortable textures from Goldsmith's synthetic library that he would rarely utilize in his other scores. The challenging cues in Sleeping with the Enemy by no means represent Goldsmith's better half of suspense or horror scoring; in fact, you'll likely forget the ten minutes of suspense writing in the latter portions of the score, cues like "Home Alone" offering nothing of interest for the listener. The only exception may be "The Ring," which does stoke a fair amount of panic in its rhythmic figures, dissonant layers, and harsh tones. The final cue returns to the deliberate beauty of the opening sequence, but with an even faster and thicker bed of electronics. One aspect of the theme that deserves special mentioning is the composer's ability to write subtle differences into its statements to solicit important changes in performance emphasis from the ensemble. In cues like "Spring Cleaning" and "The Disguise," you can hear the theme literally become tired, a technique of pacing and instrumentation that shouldn't go lost in the score's overall flow. On the other hand, the husband's music is smartly static, synthetic, and uniform, "Thanks Mom" and "The Towels" conveying the various thumping sound effects for his character that really don't develop beyond their necessary, primordial duties. On both the 1991 Sony and 2011 La-La Land albums representing the score, you'll be able to pull at least fifteen minutes of great main theme performances for your carefree enjoyment. You'll have to put that material on a compilation completely exempt from the horror genre, however, due to its counterintuitive insistence upon unfettered beauty. For those long familiar with the 1991 album, the expanded 2011 product subtracts the Van Morrison song but includes a decent rounding out of the narrative in its newly released material, some of it (like the horn counterpoint to the theme in "No Problem") pleasantly surprising. While the sound quality has always been crystal clear with this score, the La-La Land product seems to exacerbate a tinny aspect to the mix of the electronics and piano in a few cues ("A Brave Girl" for the former, "Remember This" for the latter), yielding an occasionally treble-heavy sound. Overall, Sleeping with the Enemy will defy the expectations of those approaching it blindly. It's a mixed bag in the film due to its understated and synthetic handling of the suspense portions, but the considerable airtime for the primary theme makes either album a safe investment for Goldsmith collectors. ****
TRACK LISTINGS:
1991 Sony/Columbia Album:
Total Time: 41:30
* original recording performed by Van Morrison 2011 La-La Land Album: Total Time: 55:33
* previously unreleased
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert of the 1991 Sony/Columbia album includes no extra information
about the score or film. The 2011 La-La Land album's insert includes an extensive
analysis of both the score and film.
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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 Sleeping with the Enemy are Copyright © 1991, 2011, Sony Music Entertainment/Columbia, La-La Land Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 6/1/98 and last updated 9/26/11. |
