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Review of Untamed Heart (Cliff Eidelman)

FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:

Buy it... only if you already maintain a healthy collection of Cliff Eidelman's softer character scores and yearn for another stylistically similar addition.

Avoid it... if you expect to hear the Nat King Cole song heard prominently in the film (replacing some of Eidelman's score).

FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:

Untamed Heart: (Cliff Eidelman) Among the least intelligent character romance films of the 1990's is Untamed Heart, a venture doomed by an atrociously insipid script and a complete lack of chemistry between its two leads, Christian Slater and Marisa Tomei. The two work together at a diner and face predictable obstacles when a likely affair (though posed as unlikely) ensues. Complications cause the story to barrel towards its inevitable bittersweet ending, and critics appropriately mauled the film upon its release. At the height of his early career in 1993, composer Cliff Eidelman began his streak of scoring heavy character dramas for underachieving projects such as this one. The director of Untamed Heart, Tony Bill, was impressed with the early works of Eidelman, claiming that the young composer had almost too much talent to describe, crowning him as one of the "best of the new." For the morbidly depressing project, the composer wrote a score that was eventually overshadowed by the use of a Nat King Cole song, both in place of and adjacent to the original music. The style of the work is very typical of Eidelman's use of a small performing group at that time in his career to build a sufficient emotional base for a film, though not much more. Ultimately, the score passed by in the film without much attention, and for even the composer's small group of collectors, it could be hard to tell while watching it that Eidelman had composed the music. There have been arguments made that the score was not only underused in the final edit, but was especially undermixed as well. Luckily, with a budding partnership between Eidelman and record producer Robert Townson of Varèse Sarabande (which would lead to several of Eidelman's works being released on the label over the following decade and beyond), the score for Untamed Heart endures on a very short album. The score does hold two unique personality traits that aren't evident in much of Eidelman's other projects on album. First, the bittersweet romance of the film's subject matter allowed the composer to explore a slightly mystical avenue for the scoring of its opening and closing sequences, as well as the one, overtly dark stabbing scene of the film.

For these statements of the primary theme, Eidelman weaves together subtle cello and oboe performances with a light (and perhaps synthesized) chorus. The eerie sound results in about five minutes of mystery to aid the sharply romantic edge of the film, though these passages were ultimately rejected from use in the project. Neither Eidelman's proper opening suite or closing credits sequences appeared in the final cut, making the comments of praise from the director a bit curious (maybe studio meddling was involved?). In any case, these deleted cues aren't the best part of the score. The highlight of Untamed Heart is Eidelman's dabbling with new age sounds on his keyboards, an approach that quickly stole the heart of the entire score even though their performances only amount to another five minutes of combined time. It's a case in which the score's secondary theme, a lovely, electronically keyboarded idea, is better than the primary one. Heard in brief pieces in "I'll Give You My Heart" and "You Are My Peace," the theme's use in the "Hockey Game" cue represents the most upbeat opportunity for Eidelman in the project. The fully orchestral accompaniment to Eidelman's simplistic, but satisfyingly rhythmic and modern keyboarding makes for a three minute cue that blows away the rest of the score in volume and spirit. This keyboarded theme does appear again twice in the subsequent tracks, capped off by a tender performance with flute counterpoint at the very end of the album (in "End Credits"), but the theme doesn't really receive the development it needs to satisfy the listener. Perhaps the film didn't offer enough opportunities to allow Eidelman to do so, but with that new age sound of the synthesizers dominating the second half of the score, it leaves the first half in the cold. The album contains only twenty minutes of music that made it into the film anyway, and a little over 26 minutes total. It's difficult to recommend Untamed Heart unless you already own the albums for Eidelman's Now and Then and A Simple Twist of Fate and found relaxing enjoyment in those scores. Untamed Heart is a variation on those Eidelman styles, and will be a welcomed addition to the collections of his fans. Mainstream audiences seeking the Nat King Cole song, however, will likely be disappointed by the album.  ***

TRACK LISTINGS:

Total Time: 26:30

• 1. Untamed Heart* (3:28) • 2. I'll Give You My Heart (3:51) • 3. Rainfall (1:37) • 4. Stabbed (2:39) • 5. You Are My Peace (2:55) • 6. Opening (1:48) • 7. Hockey Game (2:53) • 8. Lost (4:14) • 9. End Credits* (3:00)

NOTES & QUOTES:

The insert includes the following note from director Tony Bill about the composer:

"Out of our new-agey, muzak miasma, it's ever more difficult to hear a singular musical voice. Cliff Eidelman gets my vote for the best of the new; most elegant of the upstarts. He's too young, too well educated and too nice a guy to succeed, but he has. It must be something: it's called talent."

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