Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #926
Written 7/7/98, Revised 9/2/06
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Buy it... if you typically relax to John Barry's soothing,
thematically simplistic compositions for strings and woodwinds in the
1990's.
Avoid it... if Barry's other early 1990's dramas tend to put you
into a funk of boredom and restlessness.
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| Barry |
My Life: (John Barry) If anyone doubted filmmaker
Bruce Joel Rubin's obsession with death after he wrote and directed
Ghost and Jacob's Ladder, then 1993's My Life would
clear away that remaining doubt. It's the ultimate tearjerker for the
unashamed sniveler in the audience, the kind of film you expect to
wrestle with your emotions as a parent (or aspiring parent). In My
Life, Michael Keaton's successful executive character receives good
news in that his wife, played by Nicole Kidman, is pregnant with their
first child. He also learns that cancer will claim his life in four
months, leaving him with the idea of videotaping several hours of
material to help teach his unborn son how to someday do things like
shave and use jumper cables on a car. Subplots involve reconciliation
with his estranged parents and jabs at exploring spirituality. The film
didn't stir critics and audiences as well as expected, however, and the
"love it or hate it" response to story's outward attempts to manipulate
your emotions doomed it for the mainstream. In other words, major
downers are a bummer! Nearing the end of his productive career, composer
John Barry was still at the height of his popularity in 1993, however,
still enjoying popular recognition from Dances with Wolves and
critical recognition for Chaplin in 1992. A widely debated fault
of Barry's later scores involved his inability to expand his scores'
sound outside of his trademark lush tones established in the 1980's, and
while that stubborn continuation of style would not suit many of the
projects that would come after it, My Life was a perfect fit for
Barry's equally melodramatic and romantic touch. In theme and orchestral
sensibility, there really is no difference between My Life and
Chaplin, and many parts of My Life will remind listeners,
especially in thematic structure, of Barry's two dramatic 1995 scores,
The Scarlet Letter and Cry, The Beloved Country.
Three themes delicately grace
My Life, including
the usual light romantic affair for layered strings over the titles. Its
simple harmonies and predictable progressions will either relax or bore
you, depending, as usual, on your predisposition towards these kinds of
Barry scores. A secondary theme on piano serves as a "love theme" for
the wife of the terminally ill father, though Barry intermingles this
theme so often with the primary string theme that it's more of an
interlude within the larger title theme. A third theme, or more of a
motif, is inserted to represent the more hopeful, innocent side of
parenthood, and it is this element that gives
My Life its sole
unique element. For these playful, comedic scenes, Barry utilizes a
light synthetic pipe organ and gentle snare rhythm to add a spark of
life to the score. While the cues that include this instrumentation and
rhythm were primarily meant to represent the backyard circus environment
seen in the picture, the slight hope that this rhythm gives to the score
also happens to save the listening experience from a certain amount of
monotony. The cue "Child's Play" presents a brief splash of jazz with
the tambourine and piano, and provides the same relief to this score
that the "The Roll Dance" cues served in
Chaplin. Only one cue of
significant power exists in
My Life, with a more thunderous
percussion use under a brass subtheme in "The Roller Coaster." Outside
of these few exceptions, the score is a love affair with the string and
woodwind sections. Solo flute performances are as entertaining in
My
Life as they would be in
Cry, The Beloved Country. Both the
woodwinds and the synthetic rhythms (including the light metallic
percussion that comes with the synths) benefit greatly from Barry's
usual crisp sound quality. As is true with most of Barry's lush scores
through the years, a generous mix between wet atmosphere and accentuated
solos aids the score's soothing effect. Barry slows his themes and even
staggers them in fragments as Keaton's character begins to lose motor
control of his own body, a subtle but noteworthy technique in later
cues. Overall, you can easily predict whether you'll enjoy this typical
Barry drama depending on your opinion of his dozen other similar scores
from the era. Expect nothing more and nothing less.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
Bias Check:
For John Barry reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.86
(in 28 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.54
(in 28,702 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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