Tamara Drewe Composed by Alexandre Desplat
Silva Screen Records (2010)
Rating:
4/10
Tracks 1, 8, 16
“The shortness of
the tracks gives the music too little time to develop, and the
score’s cuteness isn’t enough to make it highly memorable listen. ”
Desplat’s “Drewe” Disappointing
Review by Steve Townsley
Alexandre Desplat’s music for film in general strikes me with the quality
of being not offensive on the ears, but neither is it highly memorable. I
keep waiting for him to surprise me with something, though, because I
think all composers have something to offer, even if that something eludes
(or continues to elude) the devoted or casual listener. TAMARA DREWE is
the latest film which features Desplat’s scoring. I have listened to it
several times, now, and find it memorable. However--that may not be a good
thing herein.
For a quirky, British country-side comedy-drama, Desplat opens the score
with a perky little tune. Very cute and simple, full of mischevious
marimba riffs. The first 30 seconds of the Opening Title is the full
statement of the theme. You will hear this theme again, repeatedly,
throughout the score. There’s very little variation to it. Track 2 (“Going
to Nadia”) slows the theme down just a tad, and there’s some colorful,
almost lovely-but-short tracks between that and track 7 (“Biggest
Shagging” - track title worth a laugh, at any rate), where the full theme
in its entirety pops up again. No surprises. Then the tracks turn to some
very sweet and rural music until track 13: “Nicholas and Tamara”, where
the theme occurs AGAIN. When I’m casually listening, I don’t constantly
keep my eyes on the track numbers, nor am I following along title by
title...but sitting back listening to this, I had to reference the player
frequently to make certain I didn’t have “repeat” accidentally clicked. I
like a good theme as much as the next listener, but this mysterious,
now-annoying theme is too frequently used here! Oh, don’t worry, it pops
up again at the close, in the album’s final and longest score cue. (Three
songs from in the movie are included here to finish off the album, but
they appeal to me not at all.)
The shortness of the tracks gives the music too little time to develop,
and the score’s cuteness isn’t enough to make it highly memorable listen.
Perhaps the score isn’t really meant to stand out, within the context of
the film, and I allow that it may come off better in a viewing, but
overall, the score doesn’t win the listener over with music that is a
little too cloying.
