Domestic Disturbance

After several listens to Domestic Disturbance I've realised that it's one of those scores that is just there. There is nothing hugely awful nor hugely inspired about it; it's melodic, exciting in all the right places and the album is short enough to never really be dull, but outside of that has nothing specifically interesting to recommend it.
Having said that it's melodic, the director was evidently quite enamoured with either Goldsmith's Basic Instinct or Hollow Man as Mancina's main theme is essentially an inversion/variation on either of those. The one neat trick that Mancina pulls is to turn it from minor key and sinister, as it appears most of the time, to major key and into what is presumably an effective family theme. I wonder whether it might have been more interesting to start with the more upbeat version and then subvert it into a threat as the score went by, but this is the kind of score and film that leaves little room for that kind of seemingly unnecessary invention

Much of the music follows along the way of semi-tension building underscore, but appears to be the sort of music which is just layered beneath whatever is happening because the director felt their ought to be music. When the music is required to take a more active role, Mancina's skills become more in evident. Run Away! features some exciting low strings and brass writing together with the inevitable synthetic percussion. Likewise, the final few tracks, Fire Parts 1 and 2 (one of the more odd production choices of recent times given the shortness of both parts), Fight and Aftermath are well wrought and provide the requisite thrill of racing strings and percussion punctuated by harsh brass stings.

Of the actively tension building tracks, Murder is the highlight and most effective, mainly because it has a better defined structure that builds towards the murder itself. From what I gather, it's a pivotal scene in the film so the music really ought to be good and Mancina doesn't disappoint with some disturbingly discordant strings. I don't suppose anyone else would have written anything more interesting given the film, in fact I rather think Jerry Goldsmith would have written something not too dissimilar and probably not a great deal more interesting. A well enough written, standard genre score.