"Short and Sweet Evelyn"
Review by Steve Townsley

Evelyn
6/10

 
The Two Towers

Bet you don’t remember where you were when you heard your first Stephen Endelman score. Heh. Well, maybe you do. I do, a few years back, when The Englishman Who Went Up A Hill But Came Down A Mountain opened widely in theaters. The quirky Celtic marches and lush romanticism swelled. And I was pretty impressed. The second time I heard Stephen Endelman was in the Disney production, “Tom and Huck” --rustic Americana and warm pastoral passages. And I was excited. And then….there was silence for a long time.

Endelman kept busy, though CD releases of his scores remained, for the most part, conspicuously absent from store shelves. A few find their way on to plastic, though--like Evelyn. Evelyn is one of those films you may not catch at the box-office, but may stumble across upon during a trip down to the local video store, but for this humble warm-hearted film, Endelman provides Evelyn, a pleasing and mellow Celtic flavored score. “Celtic flavored” seems to be a curse nowadays, and something every composer, sooner or later, falls into. But Evelyn comes by its’ Irish tones honestly, as a score for a fairly authentic Irish film, from Pierce Brosnan’s own Irish Dreamtime production company.

The almost obligatory Van Morrison song is provided at the beginning of the CD, and without further ado, we cut right into the Thomas Newman-esque “Opening Credits” (Track 2), which runs a little short at 1:05, but still displays some interesting sparse percussion. The score really opens up a bit more in the following tracks, exploring a variety of emotions with the traditional flute and fiddle of Celtic music. An upbeat jig (surprisingly so, for a track entitled “The Nuns”) is featured in track 4, immediately followed by a somber track 5, “The First Judgement”.

Here’s a good stopping point. And I mean stopping only in the sense that we should stop, observe, and then proceed further. Pierce Brosnan sings. And he’s perfectly good at it. But, being myself, I have to wonder what he’s doing on the soundtrack. Or what the purpose serves. Herein, he sings “On the Banks of the Roses”, one of those upbeat, folksy Irish songs that fools with your sense of cadence, rhyme and rhythm. Ok, well, if for no other reason than posterity’s sake, Brosnan is featured here. But sit tight, he’ll pop up again later in the CD. Only next time, it’s a drearier, blue “The Parting Glass”.

What follows of Endelman’s score is a touching and bittersweet musical exploration of Brosnan’s character as he attempts to reclaim his children to his custody with snippets of score that contain highs and lows, dark brooding passages, and moments of quiet reflection, which seem to be even paced with acoustic guitar. An overall complaint with Endelman’s score as featured on the album would be that the tracks themselves are rather short. The longest (3:56) instrumental track, 15, is a Irish Jig (aptly named “Jig Two”), but sometimes one is given to think that by now, if you’ve heard one jig, you’ve heard them all.

The score ends with a pleasant enough tune “Angel Rays” (the significance of which works itself into the plot of the film, for viewers), performed by Titanic vocalist Sissel. But then, I tend to focus on Endelman’s score represented here, and while the album on the whole is a pleasing listen, l feel that this score displays Endelman’s talent however briefly, and should be a good addition to those who are familiar with his previous works. Others who have had their fill of Celtic music may choose to save their pennies for other ventures.

*The Experience-O-Meter displays the track to track listening experience of this soundtrack based on the 5-Star rating given to each track.  It provides a visual depiction of the ebbs and flows of the CD's presentation of the soundtrack.

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