Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #1,727
Written 1/31/15
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Buy it... only if you were attracted to this conservatively subdued
and occasionally pretty score in context, where it offers a pleasant
enough ambience to basically suffice.
Avoid it... if you expect any coherent or unique musical narrative
in this score to suggest a sense of achievement and perseverance in the
main characters' lives.
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| Jóhannsson |
The Theory of Everything: (Jóhann Jóhannsson) While
respected theoretical physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking has
always preferred not to discuss his personal life or disability to any
great degree, his first wife has been more than willing to fill in that
void. Many casual observers may not realize that Hawking, prior to his
development of the motor neurone disease ALS, lived quite a normal life,
and prior to his emergence as a foremost mind in the fields of science,
his college existence included a relationship with a fellow student that
yielded marriage, three children, and two subsequent versions of a book
by that eventual ex-wife about her experiences with Hawking. Needless to
say, the interpersonal relationships in Hawking's life are strained by
not only the scientific and mathematical concepts swirling about in his
mind, but by his disability, and the challenges posed by these competing
factors are the subject of Jane Wilde's books and their 2014 cinematic
adaptation, The Theory of Everything. Produced with care on a
minimal budget, the film worked with a largely reconciled Wilde and
Hawking for many years to ensure authenticity, the latter even lending
his own performances to scenes necessitating his computerized voice. He
also finally, though not unsurprisingly, "came out" as an atheist at the
time of the film's release. With the aid of an attractive marketing
campaign, the film turned a decent profit and yielded several major
awards nominations. Among the nominations for BAFTAs, Golden Globes, and
Academy Awards were those for Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson,
whose score plays a "feel good" supporting role in the film. The sudden
international acclaim for Jóhannsson thrust him into the mainstream
after a decade-long career of rather obscure works, many of them
featuring ambient, electronically-oriented tones. In some ways, The
Theory of Everything is a fortuitous departure for the composer in
his mid-40's at the time, reflecting circumstances similar to those
experienced by several other relatively obscure composers whose luck
placed them in a position to win major awards. There has been a fair
amount of positive response to The Theory of Everything by film
score critics who credit the composer's ability to capture the
complicated relationship between scientific pontification and personal
struggles. The most interesting aspect of Jóhannsson's work is not just
his very delicate approach to supplement the film without ever
overwhelming it with emotional impact, but his sometimes distracting
adherence to stylistic norms utilized by other composers in similar
situations.
It has to be stated that Jóhannsson's
The Theory of
Everything is one of the more disappointing and overrated major
arthouse-style film scores to take the awards season by storm in years.
There is nothing to really quibble about in the ensemble chosen by the
composer, a mostly complete orchestra augmented by acoustic guitar,
celeste, and electronics, among a few other odds and ends. The substance
of these performers' music is often sufficient in its base tone and
sound. But where this score sorely lacks is in unique inspiration and
the ability to reliably bring the loves of Hawking's life together into
one coherent musical narrative. Thematically,
The Theory of
Everything is severely underplayed, only a sterile, faint,
waltz-like identity in "Domestic Pressures" recurring in "Camping" and
"Epilogue." A secondary idea of more contemporary warmth with piano and
guitar is heard in "Force of Attraction" and "The Theory of Everything."
The other motifs in the score are singular and wayward, failing to draw
any further important connections that clearly exist in Hawking's life.
It's a meandering, anchorless score despite the fact that the characters
in this story are firmly rooted in their commitments and demand motific
evolution. The style of the numerous motifs' rendering is uninspired as
well, obviously pointing towards Alexandre Desplat but also resembling
Stephen Warbeck, Ennio Morricone, Mark Isham, and James Horner. There
seems to be a "temp track effect" here whether truly existing or not,
"Cambridge, 1963" suspiciously reminiscent of
Shakespeare in Love
and
Fly Away Home, "Chalkboard" offering a piano-accented
crescendo a la
A Beautiful Mind, and "The Wedding" taking a page
from
Cinema Paradiso, among others. The moments involving
Hawking's scientific genius feature Jóhannsson's electronics in an
ambient mode, failing to make any intelligent collision between the
score's melodic stance for the characters and locations and the
otherworldly competition. This is a highly compartmentalized score, each
scene treated to a largely singular approach with little narrative flow
in the development of theme or instrumentation. As such, Jóhannsson has
offered the characters, ironically, no true voice. Some listeners will
claim that there is enough heart here to suffice for the picture, and
perhaps that is true. But a tremendous opportunity for restrained
lyricism of a more cohesive nature was sadly lost in this project, the
score ultimately retaining a conservatively ambient though occasionally
pretty demeanor without recognizing that there is an underlying, immense
sense of gravity that exists with Hawking as a real person and character
on screen. He deserves better than this, a haplessly subdued score
without any hint of achievement or perseverance that struggles to earn a
third star.
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