Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #2,276
Written 9/28/22
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Buy it... if you regularly zone out to Hans Zimmer's more
atmospherically muted film scores, Freeheld rarely unpleasant but
providing consistently stoic and subdued minimalism.
Avoid it... if you believe that this story has an abundance of
heart, which it really does, as Zimmer and his team offer surprisingly
passionless music for its characters.
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| Zimmer |
Freeheld: (Hans Zimmer/Johnny Marr) Sometimes
documentaries are best left alone by Hollywood aspirations to dramatize
every possible storyline, especially one that tickles its
socio-political fancy. That lesson was keenly learned by the 2015 movie
Freeheld, which sought to tell the fuller story of civil rights
shown in the very highly acclaimed documentary short of the same name
from 2007. That initial film told of a New Jersey police detective's
fight to have her pension be payable to her same-sex partner in the
mid-2000's after she learns that she has terminal cancer. Even though
other jurisdictions in the state had already ruled that civil unions
could be recognized for the extension of benefits at the time, Ocean
County was slow to follow suit, its board of executives and
commissioners standing by outmoded "sanctity of marriage" arguments
during repeated attempts by the officer to have her pension transfer to
her partner, who was an auto mechanic and unable to alone support
payments on the home they shared. After pressure from the state
governor, the county eventually relented, advocacy groups and press
celebrating a bittersweet victory as the officer approached death.
Fittingly, New Jersey formally legalized civil unions within a year
after her passing. The 2015 dramatization of the documentary attracted a
few major Hollywood names, though it landed with a dull thud, failing to
earn much critical praise and bombing with audiences. One of the more
intriguing names attached to the picture was composer Hans Zimmer, who
has long supported liberal causes. Although running over 100 minutes in
length, Freeheld only needed less than half an hour of score
material in an otherwise muted environment. Zimmer, as per usual,
enlisted associates at his Remote Control Productions studio to assist
him in fleshing out the short score. In this case, he called upon
English guitarist Johnny Marr, formerly of The Smiths; the two had
notably collaborated on Inception and Marr had expanded his role
with Zimmer by The Amazing Spider-Man 2, becoming a regular
performer at the composer's concerts. After Freeheld, their work
together continued on No Time to Die. Also contributing to most
of the score's cues is Dominic Lewis, who provided cello performances,
and one cue is aided by Satnam Singh Ramgotra, who lended the more
stylish percussion performances. The impact of the score is minimal
outside of a few more voluminous cues, the majority occupied with
ambient tones that range from stoically melodic to merely
atmospheric.
Expect very little of the music in
Freeheld to
elicit any emotional response, with only five to ten minutes meant to
stand at the forefront of the mix. The ensemble consists of Zimmer's
synthesizers, keyboarding from standard piano to celesta tones, acoustic
and electric guitars, cello, and rare percussion. Occasionally overt
electronic passages for Zimmer's synthetics are a detriment to the
genuine characters of the story. Tonalities are generally pleasant,
though the pacing of many cues is so slow that they may lull you to
sleep. Only the fuller ensemble moments, typically with Marr's own
guitar performances, will appeal. Thematically, the score fails to
impress at all, its main melody a meandering, static series of eight
notes on celesta-like keyboarding. A precursor to
Rebuilding
Paradise, this main theme for
Freeheld is oddly sterile,
aimless, and cold. The idea opens "On the Case" and returns after bar
source music at 3:03, becoming distorted at the end of the cue. It also
starts "Can I Have Your Number?" very slowly, staggering its
progressions as the electric guitar delicately plucks away at the idea's
fragments in the middle of the cue. It very softly wanders through the
first minutes of "Can't Leave Her" on keyboards, strangely accelerating
fragments shifting to electronic suspense. The theme joins with the
upbeat material in the middle of "The Decision" on cello and opens
"Remembering," finally receiving depth as acoustic and electric guitars
join; the melody again staggers its progressions here to offer a little
more style to the idea. A secondary theme for happiness and victory is
the highlight of
Freeheld, anchored on key and meandering in
anonymous chord shifts in "House Hunting" but shifting to a strong
variant at the outset of "The Decision," where it is developed
extensively by guitars and joined by Lewis' solo cello midway through.
It fully combines with the main theme in the second minute of
"Remembering." The only other motif of note is one of seriousness,
descending sadness on keyboards over cello defined in the first half of
"Justice" before dissolving. On album, the 28-minute presentation is not
always sensible, the pivotal "The Decision" a terrible assembly that
appends the earlier, unrelated "Tire Rotation Challenge" cue (an awful
percussive diversion) onto that important moment and throws off the
whole listening experience. Likewise, the material combined for
"Justice" is out of place. The closing "Remembering" is a highlight
suite of the score's more inspirational music, and it can be combined
with the first portions of "The Decision" to represent six or seven
minutes of everything worth hearing in the score. The remainder is
surprisingly disconnected from any heart or passion, the story deserving
more than generic atmospheres and monotone themes.
** @Amazon.com: CD or
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Bias Check:
For Hans Zimmer reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 2.85
(in 128 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 2.96
(in 299,193 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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