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Review of Winter's Tale (Hans Zimmer/Rupert Gregson-Williams)

FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:

Buy it... if you have enough patience to explore the hidden highlights of a sadly understated romantic atmosphere, up to twenty minutes of heartbreaking material begging to be condensed into a shorter presentation.

Avoid it... if you expect your supernatural fantasy romance scores of orchestral and choral constructs to appropriately reach out and demand your attention, long passages in this score barely warm enough to sustain interest.

FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:

Winter's Tale: (Hans Zimmer/Rupert Gregson-Williams) Sometimes movies just don't work. All the best intentions of novice director Akiva Goldsman could not salvage the 2014 fantasy romance Winter's Tale from the misery of irrelevance despite its alluring concept and intriguing cast. The massive financial disaster failed to bring the magic of Mark Helprin's 1983 novel to a coherent existence on film, audiences confused and critics annoyed by the fairy tale story that bridges generations of New York City in a twisted Shakespearian-style tragedy involving demons, poison, fate, redemption, and lost love. The budget for the film was slashed by 20% as production progressed, but this possible admission of failure prior to completion did not stop Winter's Tale from receiving a score supplied by the realm of Hans Zimmer, including a fair amount of involvement by the composer himself. While the music for Winter's Tale, aside from a pop song written and performed by Scottish star KT Tunstall independently, was the toil of four composers at Zimmer's prodigious Remote Control score factory, primary credit for the work is split evenly between Zimmer and Rupert Gregson-Williams, the latter mired in a series of unremarkable children's and comedy assignments in his solo career. This type of composing arrangement for magical or whimsical sidetracks in Zimmer's career has been a somewhat regular diversion, with music on the children's end of the equation (Lauras Stern and The Little Polar Bear 2) representing some of Zimmer's most engaging credits of the 2000's. While debate inevitably turns to the ratio of contribution between Zimmer and Gregson-Williams for a work like Winter's Tale, some reports have indicated that Zimmer was indeed involved in a substantial amount of the music while others have insisted that Gregson-Williams was stuck with the workman's load of less preferable duties on the project. Regardless of the attributions, Zimmer discussed the film as one of his own in interviews, claiming that Winter's Tale represented an opportunity to return to "proper" scoring procedures. No matter how he tackled the film, it has to mentioned that this score garnered remarkably little public interest from the media hype machine surrounding Zimmer, the music slipping under the radar with relatively uncharacteristic media silence.

Perhaps some of the lack of interest in Winter's Tale from the hype machine was due to the film's destiny as a failure, though it's difficult not to return to Zimmer's mentioning of the "proper" methodology he employed for this project. While on the surface, he may have been mentioning themes and orchestrations, there's also the more important issue of basic scoring procedure at issue here. Unlike the usual Zimmer score of this era, for which the composer writes a suite of thematic and stylistic ideas and his army of ghostwriters applies that intention to the film, all indications are that Winter's Tale was actually scored to the individual scenes in the film, the most common and effective (i.e. "proper") way to address the details of a story's musical needs. The marketing downside of the "proper" approach, however, is that Zimmer and his media relations team have fewer assets with which to milk the score. While traditional film score fans may celebrate this instance of capitulation to norms, the end result of Zimmer and Gregson-Williams' efforts oddly misses the narrative mark. Even among Zimmer's most ardent supporters, Winter's Tale has receive muted praise, most listeners discontent with the restraint exercised by the composers in what was a supernatural love story deserving of an outwardly romantic fantasy score akin to James Newton Howard's immensely effective Lady in the Water. All the same elements are employed in Winter's Tale, though the choral presence is limited to just a few cues. The nicely rounded orchestra is led by a softly layered piano, strings the most prominent feature otherwise. Largely monothematic is Winter's Tale, the same love theme literally opening and closing the score and meandering through countless interpretations in between. One of the ironies of this score is the common listener complaint that the themes don't enunciate themselves clearly enough for satisfaction. While that concern may be grounded solidly in terms of orchestration and emotional depth, there is no question that the main theme of the work is consistently stated. The piano identity's main phrase is the first and last thing to be heard in "Look Closely," with more cohesive development following in "Can You Hear Your Heart?" and "She Was Like a Bright Light" before the idea matures for the fullest ensemble performances in "Becoming Stars." The pastoral quality of the theme's first two phrases assists it in transcending the story's lengthy timeline.

There is nothing wrong with the construct of the main theme in Winter's Tale. Issues arise when analyzing how the theme is applied to particularly the first half of the love story, as well as a sense of incomplete realization of depth when the idea is stated. In other words, there is not enough gravity of romance to the theme's performances to anchor a story of this supernatural appeal. Another element of dissatisfaction results from the fact that the theme's secondary phrase is simply much more attractive that the preceding stanzas. Heard in the fullest form at 3:05 into "Can You Hear Your Heart?," this passage loses the heartbreaking piano melody of that phrase in subsequent returns by the composers to that idea, only the underlying progressions allowed reprises the ends of "Light as a Feather" and "Becoming Stars." The bulk of the romance material in Winter's Tale is similarly underplayed and somewhat anonymous, and the composers fortunately are afforded some opportunities to heavy the load at times with great dramatic flair in the suspense and action realms. In "It's the Ripple That Give the Work Meaning" and "You Don't Quit Me, Boy," shades of Zimmer's brooding electronic mixes dominate, and these tones merge effectively with the romantic side of the score in "I Love Blood on the Snow" (a distinctly James Horner-like cue of panic). For enthusiasts of Zimmer's vintage expressions of over-wrought, weighty ensemble romance, the duo of "The Girl with the Red Hair" and "Becoming Stars" add muscular tonal sequences of ripping snare and blaring brass that are highlights of the work. There exist moments in the score that will remind listeners of very specific moments in prior Zimmer entries as well, sometimes to a humorous degree. One such moment is a burst reminiscent of Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron for a notable scene involving the horse in this film. Overall, Winter's Tale is better than most listeners have given it credit for, featuring enough four-star highlights to justify a twenty-minute collection of highly worthy genre entertainment. The mass of the score slides back to average territory due to the composers' seeming unwillingness to wear the drama of this story on their sleeve and let the emotional tone of the music play the kind of dominant role in the film that is necessary, especially during cues such as "Hello You Beauty" and "Princess Bed." The instrumentation and thematic constructs were there to make a winner, and the lack of their application into a truly congealed, obvious narrative arc will bother some film music collectors. But Winter's Tale will reward you upon further examination and beg for rearrangement into a condensed presentation.  ***

TRACK LISTINGS:

Total Time: 63:53

• 1. Look Closely (6:08) • 2. It's the Ripples That Give the Work Meaning (2:29) • 3. Rise Up (2:04) • 4. Hello You Beauty (2:32) • 5. What's the Best Thing You've Ever Stolen? (1:42) • 6. I Love Blood on the Snow (6:42) • 7. Princess Bed (2:19) • 8. Can You Hear Your Heart (4:14) • 9. This Isn't Right (4:00) • 10. You Don't Quit Me, Boy (3:46) • 11. Light as a Feather (7:41) • 12. She Was Like a Bright Light (1:35) • 13. The Girl With the Red Hair (4:04) • 14. Becoming Stars (10:06) • 15. Miracle - performed by KT Tunstall (4:32)

NOTES & QUOTES:

The insert includes a list of performers and a single-page card advertising a downloadable app for the score, but the packaging features no extra information about the score or film.

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