Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #268
Written 3/30/00, Revised 6/30/08
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Buy it... only if you are a top tier, grade-A, die-hard collector
of Thomas Newman's unconventional rhythmic styles.
Avoid it... if you found nothing appealing about Newman's far more
attractive and interesting variation on the same idea for American
Beauty.
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| Newman |
Erin Brockovich: (Thomas Newman) The true story of
Erin Brockovich was intriguing enough to alone generate the
tension necessary to make Steven Soderbergh's film work. Following the
same general idea of A Civil Action from the previous year, the
actual events of Erin Brockovich detail a cover-up of water
contamination by a large energy company, and the lowly attorney and his
controversial clerk who help bust it open. Actress Julia Roberts earned
massive amounts of respect for her performance as the titular clerk,
bringing the much-discussed woman's crude mannerisms to life in
convincing fashion. The film's balanced emphasis on both the
professional and personal trials that she experiences during this time
(and the coincidental news of water contamination being discussed
nationally at the time) is what helped Universal Pictures sell the film
to audiences. Soderbergh's collaboration with Thomas Newman may not
overshadow that between the director and Cliff Martinez in terms of
mainstream popularity, but Newman's work for him would yield an Academy
Award nomination in 2007 for The Good German. Not long before the
release of Erin Brockovich, Newman had made waves in early 2000
with his famous expression of disgust on television when he failed to
win an Oscar for American Beauty. Of Newman's many nominations
throughout the years (with no win as of 2008), American Beauty
likely presented him with his best shot, and the clunky but likable
style of that score became heavily influential in arthouse and
commercial music, as well as Newman's own career, thereafter. The
composer was on a streak of blockbuster success in the late 1990's, and
it is without a doubt that executives at Universal were hoping for
Newman to extend the unique sound of cultural detachment in American
Beauty to Erin Brockovich. Newman succeeds in doing that, but
he is forced to tone back the volume of that style to such a degree that
it really makes no appreciable or memorable impact, sucking all the life
out of the sound.
In fact, Newman's music for
Erin Brockovich is
such a minimalistic reinterpretation on
American Beauty that it
doesn't really deserve an album of its own. The film featured very
little score material, heard in the 26 minutes pressed on Sony's album.
Slight bluegrass rhythms and occasional twists of jazz are conveyed by
Newman's piano performances, the score's only true identity. These
rhythms are pure Newman in style, instantly recognizable as his work,
and yet they accomplish so little that they don't offer much to the
listener. They are typically accompanied by appropriate electric bass to
round out the soundscape, but Newman really pours on the slapping and
clicking sound effects to fill the void with sound. The handful of cues
with this material, despite their basic structures, are the highlight of
the work. Meandering synthetic tones, sometimes using fragments of the
piano theme, are extended without ever developing into anything more
substantive. While there are a few cues, especially late in the film,
that throw the strange sampling effects at you forwards and backwards,
Erin Brockovich has none of the quirky charm of
American
Beauty. Some of the cues built around the sound effects are nearly
impossible to tolerate. The score's watered-down ramblings are typically
low in pitch, creating a dull ambience only worsened by a recording
quality that sounds as if the film were taking place underwater. There
is nothing here at all to match the title character's undeniable
charisma. The 26 minutes of score material on the album is spread across
21 tracks, and the brevity of each cue is another fatal hindrance. The
highlight of the album for the vast majority of the movie-going public
will be the inclusion of the two Sheryl Crow songs. While both decent,
the second one (at the end of the album: "Everyday is a Winding Road")
was a chart hit. Many will recall its use in the trailers for
Erin
Brockovich, and its appearance here on the album is a welcomed move
by Sony. As for Newman's score, it's hard to imagine anything less
stimulating on album. It may be appropriate for the highly
conversational film, but it doesn't stand a chance on its own.
* @Amazon.com: CD or
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Bias Check:
For Thomas Newman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.14
(in 37 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.18
(in 60,837 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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