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Review of The Holiday (Hans Zimmer)

FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:

Buy it... if you find Hans Zimmer's non-synthetic romantic comedy writing to be among his most enjoyable, for The Holiday is a very typical entry into that genre.

Avoid it... if you expect any semblance of Zimmer's trademark muscle and bass power for his more substantial projects.

FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:

The Holiday: (Hans Zimmer/Various) Among the Christmas comedies and romances in 2006, there were few successes. Director Nancy Meyers hoped to tap into the same female audience base that brought box office fruits for What Women Want and Something's Gotta Give with her home-swapping film The Holiday. In it, two professional women swap houses for two weeks at an online site for such vacations, and in the process of living in those homes, they meet their unlikely romantic counterparts. The problem for Meyers, however, is that the seemingly simple plot takes several hours on screen to resolve itself, and the acting choices are a bit bizarre to begin with. Anybody who thought that Jack Black could pull off the same transition that Adam Sandler accomplished in Spanglish was disappointed, and to see him paired in a serious role with Kate Winslet is even worse. While the film fizzled for these (and a number of other) reasons, there were some notable aspects of the project for film music listeners to consider. First, Black's character in the story is a film composer and makes a specific mentioning of Ennio Morricone in a scene. Second, composer Hans Zimmer returns to the light romantic comedy genre for which he produced endearing scores for the likes of the aforementioned Spanglish and Meyers' Something's Gotta Give. If you put those two factors together, and you know that Zimmer adores Morricone's score for Once Upon a Time in America, then it gave him the opportunity to actually interpolate Morricone's theme from the classic score into two key scenes in The Holiday. Since Zimmer's Oscar nomination for his work on James L. Brooks' As Good As It Gets nearly a decade ago, Zimmer has made a habit of writing some of his most engaging music for this genre, sometimes taking on most of the scoring duties himself. In the case of The Holiday, however, Zimmer leans on the assistance of six other composers from his clone factory to help him in the process.

While this fresh batch of clones, most of whom are relatively new names on the Zimmer scene, don't cause the score for The Holiday to become as fragmented as you might expect, some might claim to hear occasional identity problems with the work. The ensemble consists of the usual Los Angeles string and woodwind sections and a handful of soloists for flair on trumpet, piano, voice, and guitar. Thematically, the score offers two easily identifiable themes, neither of which groundbreaking, but presumably representing the two leading ladies. Perhaps not surprisingly, the best cues on album are "Maestro" and "Kiss Goodbye," both of which making vibrant use of Morricone's theme from Once Upon a Time in America and leading it to some Heitor Pereira touch on guitar. Pereira's performances never gain the momentum they had in Spanglish, understandably, and with the vocals in The Holiday playing only a minor role, there's a lack of outward flair in The Holiday that makes it a rather pedestrian score. Zimmer does counter with a charming sense of jazz, embodied best by his tribute cue to the director, "For Nancy." For Zimmer purists, only two cues (amounting to about seven minutes) were written solely by Zimmer, including the snazzy opening and the light rock-inclined "Definitely Unexpected." The remainder of the score is mostly fluff on strings, piano, and guitar, rarely raising to a substantial volume or pronouncing its themes with any exuberance. The less anonymous cues are unfortunately the weaknesses of the album, with the two source-like vocal cues in the middle, "Verso e Prosa" and "Meu Passado," breaking the easy flow of the underscore. The final two cues offer some fuller performances by the ensemble and a modern bass effect. Fans of Zimmer's early works from the 80's will enjoy the matured contemporary sound of "Cry." The juggling act of composers can be heard in a few places on the album, with even the best and most subtle fades sometimes betraying the transition from one composer's ideas to another. But, on the whole, The Holiday is a free-flowing, light-hearted, and easy score with little substance and no worries, confirming that much of Zimmer's most enjoyable music these days comes in non-synthetic forms.  ***

TRACK LISTINGS:

Total Time: 48:12

• 1. Maestro (3:54) • 2. Iris and Jasper (3:24) • 3. Kayak for One (1:31) • 4. Zero (2:45) • 5. Dream Kitchen (1:36) • 6. Separate Vacations (1:48) • 7. Anything Can Happen (0:49) • 8. Light My Fire (1:14) • 9. Definitely Unexpected (3:25) • 10. If I Wanted to Call You (1:51) • 11. Roadside Rhapsody (1:39)

• 12. Busy Guy (1:28) • 13. For Nancy (1:28) • 14. It's Complicated (1:00) • 15. Kiss Goodbye (2:33) • 16. Verso e Prosa (1:59) • 17. Meu Passado (1:25) • 18. The "Cowch" (2:42) • 19. Three Musketeers (2:45) • 20. Christmas Surprise (2:33) • 21. Gumption (3:45) • 22. Cry (2:39)

NOTES & QUOTES:

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