One True Thing

Drama films which are almost entirely talking are not the easiest films to score since making the music interesting while not overhyping the emotions or drowning out the dialogue is very difficult. John Williams' score to Stanley & Iris is possibly the benchmark by which these kinds of scores are judged. Williams made the score thematic, variable and most of all he kept the ball rolling. Randy Newman has almost made a career (in film music at least) of writing some of the most beautiful, haunting and most of all, interesting drama scores. James Horner is variable, but given the write film can write truly stunning music. Eidelman here takes the traditional approach to the Nth degree with understatement almost a prerequisite rather than just music that is gentle. The opening cue is a rather nice piano melody and forms a promising start, but the second track immediately sets the actual tone for the film with almost two minutes of music making almost no impact at all. New York is a restrained scherzo that lifts the mood slightly. Journey Back Home introduces what seems like a minor key version of the UK national anthem so not only do you get the nagging feeling that you've heard if before but also worry that this was about the inspired Eidelman could get, theme-wise for the score.

In keeping with this kind of score, the ensemble is modest; a piano, strings and the occasional woodwind instrument. They just don't really play off one another enough to provide any kind of broad orchestral colour and so the repetitive nature of the material isn't offset by interesting or variable orchestration, just plodding strings, tuneless piano and the odd flute or clarinet melody. Halloween Carnival is a little more fun (if you make it that far without getting bored), but short so the excitement really is very short lived. Press Conference has an absolutely gorgeous folksy harp and string ostinato with strings and piano weaving in and out (and kind of reminds me of Thomas Newman, but not quite as good). Otherwise, it's a great deal of not a lot until the finale cue which sums up the main motifs and brings a low key score to a low key ending. I would suggest that One True Thing wasn't actually a very inspiring film since Cliff Eidelman is a talented composer and when the material is right, he can write some marvellous stuff, I guess he needs to find some better films.