Filmtracks: The Woman in the Window (Danny Elfman)

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Written 12/16/24

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Buy it... for the opening and closing renditions of the main theme of vaguely warm but still challenging accessibility, the remainder of the score sufficiently mundane and workmanlike in the suspense genre.

Avoid it... unless you are prepared for a lesser incarnation of The Girl on the Train and a host of other Danny Elfman scores of moody minimalism.

Elfman

The Woman in the Window: (Danny Elfman) Several disastrous twists of fate awaited the troubled 2021 psychological suspense thriller The Woman in the Window. Not only was it the victim of shifting studio ownership and a producer mired in accusations of crew abuse, but the movie was also pushed back by the COVID-19 pandemic, which turned out to be a misfortune given its premise. Finally released by Netflix via streaming after a theatrical premiere was slashed by horrendous test audience reactions and haphazard re-shoots, the film features a story about an agoraphobic woman in a Manhattan townhouse who is suffering psychological breakdowns and suicidal depression but becomes convinced that the family living across the street from her is involved in a murderous crime. The plot contains many parallels to the 1954 classic, Rear Window, and the trapped nature of Amy Adams' lead, watching the world out her window and speculating about it, would have been perfect for 2020 lockdowns had the movie been released on time. Despite the troubles of that main character, she is indeed seeing crimes in progress, and eventually those perpetrating them come to get her and her only ally, the building's manager. Predictably, someone is actually a serial killer and is destined to fall to their death while audiences shrug. Those spectators did watch the movie in large enough numbers to help recoup some of its losses, but it's the kind of project that most of the people who made it want to simply move on from. The score for The Woman in the Window wasn't immune from the problematic post-production issues. Despite director Joe Wright's involvement, his regular collaborator, Dario Marianelli, was not utilized; instead, the producers re-teamed with the edgy duo of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, who wrote material for the film but ultimately bowed out in what they deemed was a mutual decision. In retrospect, their style of writing may have sufficed just fine for the picture, though with all its endless delays, the project became unsustainable in scheduling anyway.

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In stepped veteran composer Danny Elfman, who admitted to being attracted to the damaged psychological element of the lead character and, with some help from regular assistant David Buckley, cranked out an unassuming but decent blend of his own suspense mannerisms and those of Bernard Herrmann for the tale. Elfman's approach will please listeners who appreciate his more restrained, ambient, and off-the-wall tackling of the genre, starting with The Girl on the Train as the obvious starting point that guides much of the work's tone. Throw in some slight, unnerving ambience from Dolores Claiborne and the intrusive synthetic leanings of White Noise and you have a score unmistakably steeped in Elfman's style. The off-kilter Herrmann element in The Woman in the Window is the somewhat distinctive addition to the equation here, chopping string figures applied in this context even though Herrmann didn't score Rear Window. Elfman was long an enthusiast of Herrmann's music, and it in fact inspired him to enter the field of film score composing the 1980's, culminating in his extremely faithful tribute recording for the 1998 remake of Psycho. The instrumentation here is dominated by strings and piano, the latter for the lead woman's fragile state a good choice. Woodwinds don't seem present, though some brass does contribute in "Little Yellow Rose" and the outright horror chasing of "Finale." Rambling synthetic bass tones sometimes interfere in later cues for contemporary dread, and these contributions sadly cheapen the score. They fare better when looped with care in the background of the orchestral elements as an unnerving addition. Layered female vocal effects likely supplied by Elfman regular Petra Haden apply suspense with a slightly psychotic effect of shattered innocence in "Apple" and "The End," though they don't advance the thematic narrative. The entire score is built upon challenging harmonies, with no truly tonal moments. Not even in the more accessible opening and closing cues does Elfman allow easy relief or compelling drama.

The composer provides one main theme and a secondary identity to The Woman in the Window, both on top of a suspense motif that drives the darkest passages. The primary theme is for the lead woman, Anna, and provides the most engaging portions of the narrative. Elfman keenly creates several different but related phrases for the idea, all of them descending towards key, but he interchanges their order at times to represent the woman's jumbled mind. Technically the secondary phrase in the idea is a bit too close to John Ottman's main theme for Incognito, especially as that particular part of the theme often repeats twice. The erratic ordering of the phrases may make the theme challenging for casual listeners to grasp, but the six and seven-note phrases are close enough in alignment to serve their purpose. Elfman's main theme debuts at 0:07 on piano in "Opening Titles" over thumping synthetic rhythms, all the phrases introduced multiple times with reasonable accessibility. Undulating violin lines do obscure the melody when they become somewhat frantic in this cue, and the phrases are jumbled in order at 1:02 as the aforementioned representation of the woman's mental ills, these sequences finally outright inverted in order on piano at the end as the cue dies out. The theme is slowed and badly fragmented in suspense early in "Scream" though clearer on piano at 1:33, continuing its meandering in deconstructed form on synthetics at 0:11 into "Pill." It dramatically crawls on strings at the outset of "Anna's Aria" while the piano struggles to enunciate a more hopeful, ascending family version of the theme, and the strings carry a fuller version of this positive but still tragic offshoot in "The Accident" as the woman's past is illuminated. Again in fragmented form on piano in the latter half of "The Click," the main theme is barely intact at the start of "What's Not Said" and stews on celeste and piano in "Spirals-Father Friend." The ascending family variant shows a glimmer of hope in the first two minutes of "The End" before Elfman sends the theme back to its original form at 2:48 and 3:17 in the work's clearest expression of determination, the primary phrase literally the last thing you hear in the cue.

The other recurring theme in The Woman in the Window is a spying motif for the various characters engaged in the act of watching each other. Its upwards, octave-hopping alternations are heard immediately on a celeste effect in "Opening Titles" and as counterpoint to the main theme at 0:45 in that cue. Utilized prominently and elegantly throughout "Voyeurism," this motif is subtle at the outsets of "The Click" and "Preparation," softly enhances the partially synthetic fear of "Preparation," and tussles with the main theme late in "What's Not Said." It returns obviously on piano at 0:52 into "Dig," rambles over the main theme in the middle of "Spirals-Father Friend," erupts into an action motif during "Finale" on slashing ensemble hits, and supplies quick reminders against the main theme at 3:10 into "The End." Aside from these two themes, Elfman also revisits a less obvious, skittish suspense rhythm that is almost a motif in and of itself, especially in "Panic Attack" and "Apple." Ascending in structure to aid in crescendos of fear, this tool explodes with force over clicking percussion in "Murder" and synthetics in "Dig," eventually helping send off the score late in "The End." Don't expect this idea to last in memory, however. Ultimately, the composer's take on The Woman in the Window is completely sufficient but will bore most listeners not prepared for its troubled introspection. There is enough vaguely warm, accessible material in the renditions of the main theme, however, to recommend the score for those who appreciate Elfman's minimally moodier stylings. With almost 48 minutes of music in the film, there have been complaints that the movie's narrative was overscored. Unsurprisingly given the movie's ills, Elfman's work was never released commercially on album, but he took the original, 42-minute promotional arrangement supplied to critics in 2021 and released it on his website for the public in 2023. A lengthy end credits assembly following the latter portion of "The End" on screen represents most of the missing material on this promo, but that music was redundant and thus no major loss. About ten minutes of the score's meandering lyrical cues merit adding to a presentation of The Girl on the Train or inclusion on a broader Elfman compilation. Draw the blinds on the rest. *** @Amazon.com: CD or Download

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For Danny Elfman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.12 (in 95 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.26 (in 154,830 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.

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