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Review of Freeheld (Hans Zimmer/Johnny Marr)

FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:

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.

FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:

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.  **

TRACK LISTINGS:

Total Time: 27:37

• 1. On the Case (4:39) • 2. Can I Have Your Number? (2:19) • 3. House Hunting (3:10) • 4. Can't Leave Her (7:18) • 5. The Decision (3:07) • 6. Justice (2:36) • 7. Remembering (4:28)

NOTES & QUOTES:

The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.

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