Movie Wave Home
Composed by
Rating
Album running time
Performed
by
Engineered by
Released by
Artwork copyright (c) 1991 Touchstone
Pictures; review copyright (c) 2003 James Southall
|
GREEN CARD Moody
and unusual synth score
Peter Weir has made his share of excellent films, but it's unlikely that Green
Card will ever be considered to be among them. A Frenchman (played by
the actor Hollywood always turns to when it wants a Frenchman, Gérard Dépardieu) wants
to move to America but needs a Green Card - which he would get if he got
married. A horticuluralist (played by Andie MacDowell) wants to move into
a nice flat with a greenhouse but "the rules state" that the flat is
for married couples only. (What genius came up with that!?) So they
get married for the sake of convenience. And then, obviously, fall in
love. Hans Zimmer's written his share of scores for pretty light comedies in his
time and most of them are really very good. Green Card is a bit
different. To start with you'd never have even the vaguest inkling that
it's a comedy at all, with wailing vocals, mean and moody synths and not much in
the way of melody being the dominating factors in the early score tracks.
Quite how it can fit with the film I don't know. Things start to be a
little more expected around "Greenhouse", when things get a lot
lighter and fluffier, though still without much of a memorable theme (unusual,
for a Zimmer score). After Mozart's Clarinet Concerto the score changes
tone again, with more (electric) piano-dominated material emerging to provide
some playful and attractive moments. Things end with a return to the
considerably darker style heard at the start of the disc, and then a song. Green Card shares much more in common with Maurice Jarre's horrible,
anonymous synth scores for Weir's earlier films than with Zimmer's other
contributions to this genre, but in fairness it is never quite so bland and
virtually every track of score contains at least something to cling onto and
make it at least a little interesting. But it will certainly not go down
as one of Zimmer's better scores. Buy this CD by clicking here!
Tracks
|