Guy Ritchie is more than capable of producing a colourful modern comedy/adventure twist on the Indiana Jones formula and that’s what I was hoping we’d get in Fountain of Youth. It’s not really that at all – the comedy falls flat and the adventure is too silly to become invested in, as John Krasinski and Natalie Portman play brother and sister trying to find the literal fountain of youth at the behest of terminally ill villain Domhnall Gleeson, while Eiza González and “the Protectors of the Path” try to stop them doing so.
Sadly, the film being as it was also denied us the chance of hearing Chris Benstead channel the sort of vintage adventure scoring style that I’d love the chance to hear him do (maybe one day). Instead he provides a very solid if not quite spectacular action score. I’ll come to the good in a moment, but I have to start by saying that while there are recurring melodies there’s not really a strong “main theme” as such which binds it all together, which has to go down as a disappointment.
“Fathers Legacy” makes up with spirit what it lacks in apostrophes, and then we are treated to a couple of the score’s action highlights very early on, in “Thai Moped with a Wok” and “Give Me the Painting”. The album actually opens with a hugely entertaining Thai version of the old Cher song “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)” sung with some gusto by Jayce, and a similar slightly tongue-in-cheek, mischievous tone is evident in Benstead’s music, all sorts of orchestral forces coming together to provide the requisite thrills.
“The Protectors of the Path” is a mystery-laden piece of suspense, and the suspense continues into “Raising the Lusitania” (yes, that Lusitania) where a little repeating organ figure is joined by an ever-increasing orchestral presence for some very enjoyable Zimmer/Pirates (or even Angels and Demons)-type adventure/suspense material. After “Find the Rembrandt” (yes, that Rembrandt) there’s a possibly even better reprise of that action material in “Priceless Art Tug of War”.
I love “The Austrian National Library”, in which Benstead conjures the spirit of some reasonably well-known Viennese composers of days gone by (he gets the required tone spot on). Completely different but also entertaining is “Tourists Not Tough Guys”, which plays like a serious suspense cue – apart from a barking dog sound effect, which I greatly appreciate being there – and it continues into the John Powell-like “A Fighting Chance” and “another couple of tracks “Out the Tunnel” afterwards. I wasn’t entirely engaged by the film so may have missed something but I don’t remember what called for the dog noises – if it was nothing at all then I probably appreciate their presence even more!
The organ-led action music comes back in a big way in “Pyramid Exploration” after a pretty lengthy sequence of suspense cues, and this kicks off an almost non-stop 25 minute set of action pieces (the lengthy titular track a particular highlight) for the film’s final act, pausing for breath only to present “awe and wonder” type music at the various spectacles on offer.
This is an album that would have benefited from being released in the 1990s (which admittedly would have been difficult given its status at the time), by which I mean it would probably have run 35-40 minutes and run out of film sequence to give a more-rounded listening experience. As it stands, the highlights are very strong but it is quite a repetitive score, with action music concentrated at either end (and sorry to say it again, but it is a shame Benstead didn’t choose to score it with a main theme for the lead characters to whirl out when they do something heroic). Even if it isn’t quite up there with other recent albums from the composer, there’s still more than enough here to warrant a recommendation (and it doesn’t alter my opinion that Chris Benstead is the most promising film composer to have emerged in recent years – it’s about time someone other than Guy Ritchie hired him, though fortunately Ritchie is prolific enough that we’re still getting plenty of music to enjoy).
Leave a Reply