All swelling, "stirring" strings, lampshading every emotional moment for us. Implausible, over the top, and with production values more reminiscent of a TV movie than a theatrical production.
Not a fan. Way overrated.
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Daily single-tweet movie reviews: https://twitter.com/SlackerInc
I was about to post the same thing. Thanks for doing it for me! It was okay for the first two thirds or so but becomes progressively more ridiculous towards the ending.
shareYou're welcome, thanks for commenting.
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You are absolutely right.
shareThanks!
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My top 250: http://www.flickchart.com/Charts.aspx?user=SlackerInc&perpage=250
Completely disagree. James Horner's score for this movie is haunting, powerful and surreal. His death by plane crash last summer still devastates me. This was one of his last great soundtracks.
shareMaybe you like the "classic Hollywood" approach. They tended to overdo it back then too.
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Maybe you like the "classic Hollywood" approach. They tended to overdo it back then too.
I did not. Looking him up, I see he composed the music for many films, including a lot of good ones, a few great ones, and a number of bad ones as well (including this one).
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I did not.
No, that doesn't "explain it, then". I don't give anyone, alive or dead (and my OP was written when he was still alive, you'll notice) a pass just because of their buzz or because they have done something good. I don't specifically remember the scores for his other films, but many of them I enjoyed and the score obviously didn't detract. (I disagree that Aliens is a good sequel to the classic Alien, but the score is not the problem in any case).
A number of his other films, I did not like--and I don't recall at this point whether the score was part of the problem.
But the bottom line is that I judge every film on its own. If you look at the ranking list linked in my sig, there are just under 1300 movies there. If you start at the top, you might say "okay, he definitely loves the Coen brothers: he's got two of their movies in his top 6." But here is how I have ranked the 14 of their films that I have seen:
5
6
37
131
511
525
589
592
835
982
1068
1072
1235
1281
And it's not like there's a chronological thing going there either (some filmmakers take a few films to figure things out, or alternately they run out of creative juice as they get older). The top three on that list are from 1990, 2007, and 2010; the bottom three are from 1987, 1994, and 2008.
This is a tangent, I know, since we are not on a board about a Coen movie. But my point is that I don't give anyone extra points because of their reputation or because I loved any other movie they made. You have to prove it to me every time. So the fact that there are some very good movies scored by Horner does not matter a whit for me when evaluating this one, which is a stinker.
And although it's been too long since I watched it for me to honestly say I remember the specifics about how the score sounded, I know this: it's not very often that I even notice a film's score at all (which is IMO as it should be). So if this one grated to such a degree that I specifically mentioned it in my OP, that's a very bad sign.
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it's not very often that I even notice a film's score at all (which is IMO as it should be)
It sounds to me like you're not a fan of orchestral film scores and that you prefer music in movies to be atmospheric and relegated to the background.
The House of Sand and Fog would, just to be clear, have still been a bad movie with a different score or none at all.
Sure I did. I said it was "melodramatic" in the title, and I elaborated that it was "Implausible, over the top, and with production values more reminiscent of a TV movie than a theatrical production."
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I said it was "melodramatic" in the title, and I elaborated that it was "Implausible, over the top, and with production values more reminiscent of a TV movie than a theatrical production."
What makes it "implausible" and "over the top" is that it starts out seemingly establishing itself in the "realistic drama" universe, but by the end we've got various plot reversals, kidnappings, and a massive body count, like we're in a Quentin Tarantino flick. It just doesn't fit.
I respect the hell out of Sidney Lumet, but I'd need to see examples of what he's touting, beyond Greek tragedy and Shakespeare. He may have a point, but the vast majority of melodrama is just not so good.
As for how it can have TV-movie production values with Deakins as cinematographer, that's a great question. He has lensed some beautiful looking films. But when I scan over his filmography, I do see at least one (Dead Man Walking) that also verged on having a TV-movie look, although not as much as this movie. I don't know why the appearance of his films would vary that much, as I don't work in the industry (maybe it's the director's fault somehow?). All I know is how it looks to me as a finished product.
If you want to see what kind of movies I do think are good, or great, BTW, just click the link in my sig.
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What makes it "implausible" and "over the top" is that it starts out seemingly establishing itself in the "realistic drama" universe, but by the end we've got various plot reversals, kidnappings, and a massive body count, like we're in a Quentin Tarantino flick. It just doesn't fit.
I respect the hell out of Sidney Lumet, but I'd need to see examples of what he's touting, beyond Greek tragedy and Shakespeare.
As for how it can have TV-movie production values with Deakins as cinematographer, that's a great question. He has lensed some beautiful looking films. But when I scan over his filmography, I do see at least one (Dead Man Walking) that also verged on having a TV-movie look, although not as much as this movie. I don't know why the appearance of his films would vary that much, as I don't work in the industry (maybe it's the director's fault somehow?). All I know is how it looks to me as a finished product.
Roger Ebert wrote in his review that it's a film about "good people with good intentions who have their lives destroyed because they had the bad luck to come across a weak person with shabby desires," and that, "finally, there is a kind of love and loyalty, however strange to us, that reveals itself in the marriage of Massoud and Nadi, and must be respected."
He was talking about his film Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. Like this film, that one is a captivating, harrowing melodrama. Check it out.
It's not very convincing to claim something "looks like a TV movie" and then not even have the technical knowledge to support your argument -- which just makes it look like you don't know what you're talking about.
Odd, I thought the score was bland. It didn't have a memorable melody. All I heard was just sound or incessant key that looped, with not much tension or lulls.
Rather strange, because Horner is good with dramatic music (i.e. Titanic). It seems like he was bored when he was composing this.
He does have many other great scores. It's weird.
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Yep!
Maybe they didn't give him enough time to make material?
Totally agree with you GuyOnTheLeft!!
shareThanks!
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Hated the music, it could have done without it as the story was strong enough. The movie is still nearly flawless though.
shareAgreed. I wasn't even that bothered by the music but more by the piss poor artificially dramatic story. Everything was so obviously directed at getting the maximum possible emotional response. Really bad film because of that fakery.
sharecouldnt disagree more. this movie was incredibly nuanced and character motivations are clear, justified and realistic on both sides. you probably don't understand social interacts very well if you couldn't see this.
share