WHAT DREAMS MAY COME

MICHAEL KAMEN

Rating:

Original Review: What Dreams May Come is a film which deals with, in the words of Michael Kamen, two terrific themes to be involved in, musically - love and death. Based on the classic 1971 novel by Richard Matheson (who also wrote Somewhere In Time), it stars Robin Williams as a man who dies in a car crash, and ascends to heaven under the guidance of angel Cuba Gooding Jr. However, Christy's love for his wife Annabella Sciorra lives on, and when she commits suicide after his death, he vows to rescue her from hell and bring her safely back into paradise. Originally, Ennio Morricone was to provide the music for Vincent Ward's deep, thoughtful movie, but the score was removed from the film at a very late date. Apparently, Morricone's score was "very liturgical, very Roman Catholic, very profound, very serious, and the film was already profound and serious and weighty", so Kamen was enlisted to write a slightly more accessible replacement. The result of his efforts, despite having a VERY short time to write the score, is one of the most beautiful and well-rounded scores of his career. Several cues are performed simply on piano with a soft orchestral backing, while others make full and varied use of the London Metropolitan Orchestra. The main theme is based on "Beside You", an old song written by Kamen and his friend Mark Snow, and it's delicate, yearning melody perfectly captures the film's message of love continuing beyond the grave. Its initial performance in 'I Once Met This Beautiful Girl By A Lake' is an oboe solo by Kamen himself, offset by a lovely acoustic guitar. It receives further full renditions later on, most notably as a fully orchestral piece featuring Andrew Schulman's lovely cello in 'Beside You/Divorce', and finally as a song performed with mellow vocals by Simply Red's Mick Hucknell. However, Kamen has not really developed his theme sufficiently for my liking. Despite the attractiveness of the melody, it is not performed regularly enough during the score for the listener to make a true emotional connection to the theme which, for a film all about emotions and feelings, is absolutely essential. Having said this, there are still many moments of incredible beauty in What Dreams May Come. 'Summerland - The Painted World' shimmers with life and energy as Christy makes his first tentative steps into his new life. 'Longing' is a gentle, poignant piano solo, and both 'Together in Heaven' and the superb finale 'Reunited/Reincarnation/When I Was Young' finally provide the spine-tingling emotional crescendos that the score had previously been crying out for. There are also quite a few harsh, sometimes frightening cues to represent Christy's journey through Hell, which stand at odds with the rest of the album's tranquil, melodic style. 'Annie's Suicide/Soul Mates', 'In Hell', 'Stormy Seas' and 'The Sea of Faces' especially, are marvellous examples of Kamen's dramatic range. Occasionally, Kamen does quote his earlier scores Mr. Holland's Opus and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, but I suppose this can be forgiven considering the short time he had to write the music. Also, the album is presented rather unusually in that each track is split down into three or four sub-tracks lasting between one and two minutes. However, in the track listing below, I have brought each cue together and given the track times for each one as a whole. Michael Kamen himself thinks that What Dreams May Come is probably his best ever score. I would disagree. Although it is undoubtedly a well-written, very attractive and poignant score, I personally feel that it lacks a little *something* which would otherwise have made it a classic.

Track Listing: Running Time: 60 minutes 43 seconds

Beyond Music 63985-78039-2 (1998)

Music composed and conducted by Michael Kamen. Performed by The London Metropolitan Orchestra. Orchestrations by Michael Kamen and Robert Elhai. Featured musical soloists Michael Kamen, Andrew Schulman, Dane Lee and Phil Palmer. Special vocal performances by Julian Meinardi and Alan Machahek. Recorded and mixed by Stephen McLaughlin. Edited by Daryl Kell. Album produced by Michael Kamen, Stephen McLaughlin and Daryl Kell.


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These web pages were designed and maintained by Jonathan Broxton copyright 1998. All opinions and views expressed on these pages are my own and are in no way intended to reflect those of my employer, the Trent Institute for Health Services Research, or those of the University of Sheffield.