LIAR LIAR

JOHN DEBNEY

Rating:

Original Review: I feel quite sorry for John Debney. Since literally bursting onto the scene in 1994 with Cutthroat Island, he has not really been given another opportunity to musically stretch his wings, and has generally been stuck in lowbrow comedy and action movie hell (look at his filmography and you'll see where I'm coming from - anyone else remember classics such as Houseguest, Getting Away With Murder and Carpool?) Liar Liar at least gave Debney a more high-profile, if not exactly inspiring assignment. The film starred Jim Carrey as Fletcher Reed, a hotshot lawyer who is forced to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth for a day after his son makes a wish at his birthday party - Fletcher being absent, after promising him he would be there. Hi-jinks ensue - some funny, some not so funny - with Carrey's physical dexterity and rubberfaced antics playing major roles in the comedy. The main theme, first presented in 'My Dad's A Liar' has "Disney" stamped all over it and, although the movie was not produced by anyone from the Magic Kingdom, the music maintains that overall feeling of sweetness, sentimentality and magical innocence. It is surely the score's major saving grace, and every subsequent cue in which it features ('I'm A Bad Father', 'I Love My Son', 'Together', 'The Claw Returns', 'End Credits') is a real treat. It's just a shame, then, that it was written by James Newton Howard. Debney's major contribution to the music is a playfully bombastic brass-led scherzo which underscores Carrey's painful experiences with various forms of public transport. This melody is put to great use in cues such as the wonderfully exciting 'Pulled Over' and 'Airport Chase', and also in the film's end credits 'Outtake Montage', some of which seem to have been better staged than the gags in the film. However, probably because of the slapstick nature of the film, Debney engages in a lot of "Mickey Mouse" scoring, musically following each hit of the action but never allowing his themes to develop any substance or identity. As a result, the album tends to jump around from cue to cue without any real coherency, and this is its major downfall. The music is rapid enough to effectively accentuate the on-screen movement but, off-screen, it's all speed and noise with not enough form. In the end, it seems rather unfair that a man with so much talent is constantly forced to work on films which are obviously unsuited to his style - and then suffer the ultimate indignity of not even being asked to write his own film's main theme! Unfortunately, it's a sorry story often told in Hollywood, and a curse that befalls many an excellent composer. I suppose we'll just have to be content that he's still working. Liar Liar may not be the best score John Debney has ever written, but it's also not the worst, and it's certainly encouraging to see him scoring high profile movies, whatever they may be.

Track Listing: Running Time: 29 minutes 27 seconds

MCA Soundtracks MCAD-11618 (1997)

Music composed and conducted by John Debney. Orchestrations by Brad Dechter, Frank Bennett and Don Nemitz. Main theme written by James Newton Howard. Recorded and mixed by Shawn Murphy. Edited by J. J. George and Mark Ryan. Mastered by Patricia Sullivan. Album produced by John Debney and Mick Stern.


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