Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #1,275
Written 3/6/01, Revised 11/10/07
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Buy it... if you've always had a soft spot for the Jerry Goldsmith
scores for Joe Dante films and seek the best that Basil Poledouris had
to offer during the later years of his career (when dumb comedy
assignments were common).
Avoid it... if you can't face a stripped down, sparsely
orchestrated version of Poledouris' soaring spirit for Wind
surrounded by cute, contemporary pop rhythms.
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| Poledouris |
Kimberly: (Basil Poledouris) Everybody knew that
composer Basil Poledouris loved writing music for anything having to do
with boats and the sea. But what's amazing about his involvement with
1999's Kimberly is just how far he would go to do that.
Poledouris' career was coming to an unfortunate close in the late 1990's
and early 2000's, partially forced into retirement by a battle with
cancer and dealing with a messy divorce from his ever-popular wife that
led to an awkward personal relocation. Otherwise secure, Poledouris
could pick and choose his assignments, which is why few people can
understand the kinds of projects he accepted in his final four years of
production. From Mickey Blue Eyes to Crocodile Dundee in Los
Angeles, little made sense about these choices. In the case of
Kimberly, a terrible independent film with absolutely no purpose,
you have to wonder if Poledouris loved any film having to do with boats
to such a degree that he, on that fact alone, agreed to the project. To
say that Kimberly was a terrible film is kind. It was so awful
that it was repackaged by Ardustry Home Entertainment in 2005 under the
name Daddy Who? for a dubious DVD release. Actress Gabrielle
Anwar, whose career had already gone down the toilet by that point,
plays the title role; she's the daughter of an Olympic rower who is
convinced to be the trainer for a group of four Ivy League rowers who
are, quite frankly, not competitive. Despite a pact by the men not to
flirt with the trainer, she, being the irresistible slut that she is,
fornicates with all four of them in a single weekend. When she is
discovered to be pregnant, the four decide not to learn who's the father
and together raise the baby as a family of six. There's a big racing
sequence in the film, but who cares? Obviously, Poledouris did, for
Kimberly seems on the surface to be a knock-off of Wind
with a knocked-up girl. Ironically, despite the film's shortcomings,
Poledouris wrote the best score he could given the budgetary
restrictions of the project, and he actually did quite well. Among the
dumb comedy scores late in his career, Kimberly is among the most
enjoyable in a purely undemanding blend of light comedy and sparse
drama.
When Poledouris embarks on one of these tangents, his
music becomes very similar to Jerry Goldsmith's efforts in the same
genre, and
Kimberly has several quirky Joe Dante-like film score
moments. Poledouris creates a frolicing and bouncing main theme with the
same lofty string technique that Goldsmith employs, as well as similar
contemporary rhythms thereafter. The title theme is by far the most
interesting aspect of the score, providing an inspirational tone for the
rowers while maintaining a downright cute underlying rhythm for the
romance. Simple and charming, the theme's performances are limited to a
solo trumpet and flute over choppy strings and electronic percussion in
the opening cue. The theme would appear three more times in the score,
and as the main girl would prove unable to keep her legs together, the
fluffy flute would be replaced by a sax and a continuing trumpet. For
the pinnacle of the film's action, Poledouris would provide the theme in
"The Race" with a heightened, robust depth in electronics and brass as
almost a tribute to his
Wind score. The same power isn't there,
but the spirit is what counts. The title theme also exists on pleasant
acoustic guitar in "Guy Montage" and is led by strings with the full
ensemble in the final two cues. For the rest of the score, Poledouris
limits the scope of the music to light pop rhythms, sometimes with
frantic comical dances, and a fair share of uneventful underscore. Along
with
Mickey Blue Eyes in the same year, Poledouris proved his wit
in the area of feathery parody work. The pop rhythms, accented by sax
performances, are a positive aspect of Poledouris' talents; he could
readily compose light and pleasant atmospheres for modern, urban
characters, and there is a substantial amount of that talent on display
in
Kimberly. Some of the attitude from
Free Willy's
light-hearted, aquatic tracks is evident in the electronics. While not
particularly noteworthy in the larger scheme of things, these tracks
make for easy listening on album. That short album suffers from high
range distortion in the mixing of the trumpet in "The Race," but is
otherwise enjoyable. Don't expect miracles in
Kimberly, but it's
a charming score from a composer very late in his accomplished career.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
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Bias Check:
For Basil Poledouris reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.54
(in 35 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.3
(in 36,800 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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