FILMTRACKS.COM
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW

Review of The Time Traveler's Wife (Mychael Danna)

FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:

Buy it... if you appreciate pretty, but understated romance scores with a touch of intrigue and despair that require amplification to high volumes (and probably repeat listens) to fully grasp.

Avoid it... if you expect Mychael Danna to either develop his themes in this score into truly memorable performances or, conversely, to exhibit the same level of thoughtful intelligence usually evident in his works.

FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:

The Time Traveler's Wife: (Mychael Danna) The writers of romance novels will attempt to conjure any bizarre circumstance through which to test the boundaries of romance, and in Audrey Niffenegger's lengthy, bestselling novel, a new twist of science fiction is applied to the average contemporary love story. The man in this tale is an introverted sort who has traveled through time uncontrollably for most of his life but always returns inevitably to the current timeline. Most of his trips send him to places or people important to him, and he watches the woman of his dreams grow up from a girl until, inevitably, the two end up together as adults. There are tear-jerking opportunities galore in The Time Traveler's Wife, though the fact that the man spins through time naked is among the few humorous aspects of the idea. Much of the film concentrates, obviously, on how the woman copes with her suddenly disappearing soulmate, a somewhat frequent event that continues despite the fact they start a family. Men hoping to be presented with a good time paradox or two to chew on will be disappointed by what otherwise can be classified as a "chick flick," and reviewers were pretty much split among those who could tolerate the concept and those who found it shallow. Writing the score for The Time Traveler's Wife was Mychael Danna, an intriguing choice for director Robert Schwentke to turn to after employing James Horner for Flightplan several years prior. Danna's career has been well constructed to handle the strange and exotic, the results almost always intelligent and thought provoking. Straight forward romances are another issue, however. He has ventured into this genre into the past, most notably for Bounce, but the vast majority of his most discussed work has been written for worldly or exotic subject matter that has allowed him to exhibit his masterful skills at Middle Eastern and other regional instrumentation.

To hear Danna mostly jettison his comfortable sensibilities and tackle a film that would, twenty years ago, have been the domain of John Barry, is definitely different. Despite the opportunity to score the fantasy element of The Time Traveler's Wife with an extension of his foreign-sounding tones, Danna instead handles the film as though it were primarily a contemporary romance. He does insert bowl and synthetic effects to create an ambience of uncertainty in many places, including a specific motif for the time traveling, but most of the score is conservatively orchestral and harmonious. Don't look for Danna's thematic constructs blow you away; there's no single progression in the score that you will recall in its entirety even after the third or fourth listening experience. But the environment in films like this is all that counts, and Danna's tender piano ramblings under lovely string and woodwind counterpoint (as in "Who Would Want That" and "It's a Girl") is occasionally joined by a mournful solo cello. Despite some impressive work on the latter instrument, it's the delicate, flowing piano that steals the show, conveying many of the overdue, engaging warmth in the second half of The Time Traveler's Wife. A slightly wet mix to this instrument's contribution gives the ambience the necessary free-floating sense of fantasy and distance. The final cues in the score offer the string section in its most robust, melancholy performances, sufficing in their expressions of hope and despair but never overplaying their hand. Unfortunately, the conclusion of the score on album (heard in "See You Again") offers little hope in terms of symphonic warmth, instead turning to the synthetic realm to close out the score on an uneasy note. The aforementioned unconventional elements for the time travel aspect of the story include Gamelan bowls, a grating synthetic effect in the treble, and a groaning, almost menacing electronic droning in the bass region for the dread of another transfer through time.

The use of electronically manipulated, backwards samples for the treble time travel effect is too predictable, tired in its application here; it's the kind of relatively cheap trick that the creative likes of Jerry Goldsmith would not have likely resorted to, and Danna is better than that, too. Otherwise, between the bowls, slightly elevated light percussive rhythms, and plucked strings in a few cues, some listeners will hear a touch of Thomas Newman. The environment of The Time Traveler's Wife is well represented by Danna's work, though the lack of memorable theme does hinder the overall presentation. Slight references to the primary idea, such as the one on strings in the middle of "No Tracks in the Snow," leave you wanting more continuity. If you don't crank up the volume on this album, you will likely miss what Danna does offer. Only in a few circumstances, such as the end of "I Never Had a Choice," will the dissonant bass electronics disturb the soundscape. Even when appreciated for its intimacy at high volumes, however, while soothing and beautiful in its whole, the score leaves you slightly cold, yearning for a bit more potential to be explored in these constructs. The flow of the album, which did not receive a factory pressing on CD (leaving it to download and "disc on demand" services), is mostly intact, save for the insertion of one of the three source songs in the middle. A portion of the Christmas hymn "Es Ist Ein Ros" does creep into the score cue "Five Years." Otherwise, the other two non-score tracks are songs relevant to the on-screen performances or usage in the film's trailer (both promise to be easy on the ears even if they don't share the same tragedy inherent in the score). Ultimately, Danna's work for The Time Traveler's Wife comes excruciatingly close to earning a four-star rating, but its detached character (possibly by necessity) and unrealized thematic development make it among the best three-star scores you will hear. Just make sure you amplify it, because otherwise it will pass you by without as much as a single jolt to stir you from your slumber.  ***

TRACK LISTINGS:

Total Time: 55:02

• 1. Es Ist Ein Ros - traditional (0:51) • 2. I'm You Henry (2:30) • 3. Meadow (3:19) • 4. How Does It Feel? (1:59) • 5. Diary (1:21) • 6. Train (1:43) • 7. I Don't Feel Alone Anymore (2:22) • 8. Love Will Tear Us Apart - performed by Broken Social Scene (4:44) • 9. Married to Me (1:04) • 10. Home (1:36) • 11. Do You Know When? (2:09) • 12. Testing (1:04) • 13. Alba (2:33) • 14. I Never Had a Choice (2:58) • 15. Who Would Want That (2:29) • 16. I Left Him Sleeping (1:30) • 17. It's a Girl (2:58) • 18. Five Years (2:03) • 19. Try to Stay (1:40) • 20. New Year's Eve (1:55) • 21. No Tracks in the Snow (1:48) • 22. See You Again (5:42) • 23. Broken - performed by Lifehouse (4:47)

NOTES & QUOTES:

There exists no formal packaging for the initial release of this album.

Copyright © 2009-2024, Filmtracks Publications. All rights reserved.
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 The Time Traveler's Wife are Copyright © 2009, New Line Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 8/22/09 (and not updated significantly since).