Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #1,904
Written 10/24/18
Invert Colors
Buy it... if you desire a faithful souvenir of the film's vintage
jazz and sappy romantic underscore, the first style's comedic presence
completely eclipsing the latter's somewhat underplayed execution.
Avoid it... if you expect Brian Tyler to prevail with a memorably
even-keeled product in this rare foray into the romantic comedy genre
for him, for the softer portions don't exercise enough whimsical gravity
for the story.
 |
| Tyler |
Crazy Rich Asians: (Brian Tyler) Cultural victories
don't come without some controversy, and the 2018 adaptation of Crazy
Rich Asians to the big screen set off protests about its otherwise
vital infusion of an all-Asian cast into the forefront of the box
office. The romantic comedy is really a quite standard story of family
acceptance and petty lover backstabbing, but the project represents the
first major, Asian-centric Hollywood story set in the modern era over a
25-year span. The leading lady is an American professor whose long-term
boyfriend turns out to be the heir to a real estate fortune in
Singapore. She only discovers this fact when she travels with him to
attend his friend's wedding and is confronted by his former flames and,
worse yet, his domineering mother. The professor's whirlwind experiences
take her through the entire, zany extended family of her boyfriend,
ultimately yielding the usual splits and reunions made specifically for
Hollywood endings. Crazy Rich Asians and its strong box office
grosses came under protest for its casting of non-Chinese actors
(especially the leading man), the type of English language used, and an
allegedly poor ethnic representation of Singapore in the film.
Accusations of whitewashing faced the production despite its best
efforts, though the original book's character quirks forced the casting
decisions in question. Regardless of these issues, Crazy Rich
Asians is an important step forward for minority representation in
mainstream Hollywood, where Asian ethnicities very underrepresented
generally. Director Jon Chu supervised the selection of a wide variety
of classic songs with lyrics related to money and ultimately utilized
cover versions of them in English and Chinese for the popular
soundtrack. For most viewers, these songs will best represent the film,
but Chu also reunited with composer Brian Tyler to supply an original
score to mingle with those prominent song placements. Tyler had extended
his sound from Now You See Me for Chu's sequel in that franchise
a few years earlier, and some of the fundamental jazz influences carry
over to Crazy Rich Asians. The score for the film was a
particularly challenging task, as Tyler had to address the romance and
culture of the plot without inviting additional accusations of
whitewashing or heavy-handedness on the personality of his music. How
much, if any, outward Asian style was merited in the instrumentation?
His answer is a mixture of conventional romance and humorous vintage
jazz to forge a new path that largely marginalizes the Asian
element.
On the surface, Tyler's efforts for
Crazy Rich
Asians are a refreshing success for the composer. Light-hearted
romantic comedies are not his foray, and it's a great deviation for the
busy veteran of action and drama. When you dig into his score for
Crazy Rich Asians, however, you find a mixed bag of tricks, a
wealth of old-school jazz that is as affable as ever, a handful of
outright comedy cues of minimal interest, and a romantically dramatic
portion that is arguably underplayed and only somewhat effective. The
jazz is the highlight of the work, though it won't appeal to all. It's
not the flamboyant caper style that you hear in the
Now You See
Me scores but an older, more lounge-oriented vintage of 1940's jazz
that is almost as sleazy as it is amusing. The professor's interactions
with the various personalities in Singapore are treated to these bright
interludes, led by "Text Ting Swing," and they successfully create an
ambience of other-worldliness without resorting to outright Asian
musical stereotypes. The listener is still immersed in a different
world, but one of class rather than ethnicity, making it a smart choice
from the lead woman's perspective. Mixed into these cues are moments
like "Cousin Eddie and Cousin Alistair," intentional parody sequences
that take the jazz to ridiculous levels of zeal. By "Jubilee Bop" to
conclude the album, some listeners will wonder if they're listening to
Michael Giacchino's take on the same genre. Meanwhile, the romantic
portions are pleasant and arguably sufficient, but they lack the
emotional poignancy of a Rachel Portman equivalent, even at the
catharsis in "Because of Me" at the end. Tyler's main theme for the
movie exists in these passages, and it contains a hint of James Horner
sentimentality but never really takes flight. It's the kind of pretty
piano and string presence that is carried by the film's other production
elements rather than lending any gravity to its scenes. Only
occasionally does Tyler allow stereotypical Asian influences in his
music, the erhu and percussion presence in "Arrival in Singapore" and
"Without Reservation" highlights of the score; more of this subtly-mixed
aspect would have been welcomed, and Tyler could have justified it with
the locale of the story. A few other standout cues aside from the jazz
need mentioned, led by the vaguely Thomas Newman-like, almost East
Indian and Japanese ethnicity of "Parallel Decisions" that includes some
stylish rhythmic suspense. The story's melodramatic crescendo is matched
by the score in "Running Away," in which Tyler lays on the strings and
brass for the heftiest moment of the work. Moderate your expectations
for the entire package, though, for the score-only album's
smirk-inducing jazz completely overwhelms Tyler's romantic touch.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
Bias Check:
For Brian Tyler reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.2
(in 41 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.13
(in 19,742 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
