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CINDERELLA MAN Subtle
but powerful score from Newman A review by JAMES SOUTHALL Ron Howard is often criticised (rightly, in my opinion) for
his films being a little bit too lightweight and "nice", being pure
surface-level stuff. They frequently serve as fine pieces of entertainment
but are often just a bit too sanitised to be completely satisfying; in Cinderella
Man however, the director pulls no punches (if you'll excuse the pun).
Charting the rise, fall and rise again of boxer Jim Braddock in New York City
during the Great Depression, it's quite a powerful film. Like all sports movies, the
ending is inevitable, so the trick is to do interesting things along the way,
and the movie does just that, really delving into Braddock's psyche. There
are strong performances from Renee Zellwegger and Paul Giamatti, but especially
from Russell Crowe, who is typically outstanding in the lead role. Crowe
is a real, old-fashioned movie star, able to come across as an everyman yet
somehow seem larger than life at the same time. If he'd been born 40 years
earlier, there's surely no doubt he would have been in a whole host of John
Ford-style movies. What really separates him from the crowd, though, is
quite simple - he can do that, but he can actually act as well, convincingly
filling numerous very different roles. Director Howard chose to break up his recent (fruitful)
partnership with James Horner, which had covered his previous three movies, and
turned instead to Thomas Newman, who had scored Gung Ho for the director
almost two decades earlier. About the most predictable thing about Newman
scores is that they're going to be unpredictable, and Cinderella Man is
as far away from the traditional flag-waving sports movie score as could
be. The composer chose to home in on Braddock's turmoil as he battled to
scrape enough money together to provide for his family, and also during
fights. As such, this is frequently very dark, low-key music, functioning
in the film to enhance the atmosphere without really being heard very often. There are exceptions to this, such as when Newman introduces a
wistful, nostalgic piano theme with just enough of an essence of hope. Of
course, Newman is not the sort of composer who overdoes the theatrics and so
this nostalgia never gets particularly sentimental. Only towards the
score's conclusion, starting in "Big Right", does the score take on a
more up-front role. That cue sees a dark, rather fierce motif overtaken by
one of combative spirit and, eventually, optimism, and signals the slightly more
crowd-pleasing style of the last couple of tracks. There is a subtle Irish
influence present through much of the music, but of course Newman keeps this in
check and weaves it into the music in a clever way which doesn't draw attention
to itself (in stark contrast to the director's usual composer). The
titular twenty-third track is when the composer really lets the orchestra swell,
but even here there is a sense of restraint which draws to mind the composer's
outstanding finale music from The Shawshank Redemption. Cinderella Man is just a little too low-key to be as
enjoyable an album as several of Newman's recent efforts, but the composer must
be applauded for going against the grain and writing a score like this for a
film like this, because it fits perfectly. As usual with Newman, the album
mixes his score with some period tunes and, as usual, this does not work well -
the clash of styles is far too absolute (and Newman's own style so singular and
unmistakable) to make the album an enjoyable listen when going straight through,
so to be experienced best, it must be programmed down to the score only.
Fans of the composer's scores for things like Shawshank and Road to
Perdition will probably be highly impressed, although those attracted to him
for his slightly showier works may find it too slow-going. Buy
this CD from amazon.com by clicking here! Tracks |