A PERFECT MURDER

JAMES NEWTON HOWARD

Rating:

Original Review: A Perfect Murder is a typical example of the laziness in 1990's Hollywood - an unashamed remake of the classic Hitchcock movie "Dial M For Murder", with a bankable big name cast (Michael Douglas, Gwyneth Paltrow) in the Ray Milland/Grace Kelly roles, and a journeyman director (Andrew Davis) with a penchant for slick, glossy, undemanding entertainment - The Fugitive notwithstanding. Basically, Manhattan wife Paltrow is tired of her marriage to hotshot banker Douglas, so she embarks upon an adulterous affair with a bohemian artist Viggo Mortensen. Douglas finds out the truth but, rather than fly off the handle, he comes up with a business proposition: Douglas will pay Mortensen a handsome sum of money if he will kill his wife. Unfortunately, there is very little of note in James Newton Howard's score. Saddled with polished but terminally uninspiring source material, Howard barely deviates from the tried and tested "thriller" formula of low, creeping strings punctuated by loud brass 'n orchestra blasts to accompany the occasional scenes of mayhem. Aside from the inclusion of some dreamy female vocals, his 'Main Title' is one of the least impressive I have heard for a while, and presents absolutely nothing in terms of melodic content. The second and third tracks, 'Ever Been To Be To Belize?' - yes, that is the correct title - and 'That's Not Happiness To See Me' introduce a slightly more upbeat tone with the addition of some sampled choir and percussion effects to accompany the grinding violins, but thereafter the score reverts back to its patented nervousness. The middle three cues - the tense 'The Intruder', the brief but frenzied 'The Attack', and the skittish 'He's In The Kitchen' - do raise the adrenaline content somewhat, but the desired effect is achieved simply by violently increasing the speed and volume of the performance, and by introducing a series of savage percussion hits, slashing Herrmannesque string strokes and groaning horns. The briefest hint of an oboe theme occurs half way into the never-ending 'Can You Ever Forgive Me?' but it is never developed further, instead returning to the electronically-enhanced tension of earlier tracks. The penultimate piece, 'You Take Care', has a forceful brass motif supported by some funky synth grooves, but the final cue, 'What Happens If...?' simply melts away into nothingness, despite some pleasant, resolutory piano and string chords. Ultimately, A Perfect Murder is a run-of-the-mill, common-or-garden thriller score with little to distinguish it from the seemingly never-ending stream of other thriller scores churned out day after day by composers a lot less well-respected than James Newton Howard. Genre scores of this type are always difficult to review favourably, mainly because their nature is to be dark and brooding, and fitfully chaotic, and therefore not particularly listenable. In this respect, then, A Perfect Murder adequately achieves its aims and accentuates the on-screen action. Still, a little originality wouldn't have gone amiss.

Track Listing: Running Time: 30 minutes 28 seconds

Varése Sarabande VSD-5946 (1998)

Music composed by James Newton Howard. Conducted by Artie Kane. Orchestrations by Brad Dechter, Jeff Atmajian and James Newton Howard. Vocal soloist Lisbeth Scott. Recorded and mixed by Shawn Murphy. Edited by Jim Weidman and David Olson. Mastered by Joe Gastwirt. Album produced by James Newton Howard and Jim Weidman.


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