Little Women Original Score

Composer Alexandre Desplat (who holds two oscars for his scores for The Grand Budapest Hotel and The Shape Of Water), reports that early on in conversations with director Greta Gerwig, she had envisioned "Mozart meeting Bowie" for the sound track. This seems to to have stuck with him; I would definitely classify the score as pop-informed chamber music. But the pop sensibility serves only to diminish the classical interest, and the classical instrumentation precludes any apparent tonal exploration. The end result is watered down and forgettable, offering none of the nuance or intrigue one might expect from a chamber score, and none of the idiosyncratic pop personality one might hope for with David Bowie as an inspiration.

In the movie itself, the score sits quite low and threads through the film in the most unobtrusive way. There are fleeting glimpses of personality in the "Little Women" theme, it has a Coplandesque feeling of enterprising energy. But it feels like an empty promise as the score goes on in a perfunctory manner that seems to have "stay out of the way" as its chief goal. I feel like the score for this otherwise magnificent movie was a bit of a missed opportunity; an after-thought where there should have been careful planning and mood-sculpting. Scores like this do disservice to classical instrumentation, which is so full of color and potential, and justifies the yawns and rolled eyes that classical music illicits from modern audiences.

There is one hugely successful moment of the sound track, courtesy of the great Antonín Dvořák. A lilting, furtive scherzo... filled with melody but also space and mood. It rings out in the magical moments that Jo and Laurie are discovering kindred spirits in one another, and the beauty of that moment masterfully sets up the rest of the film.

I think the success of this 20th century piece sums it up: we needed more risks in the score, more modernity. This playful string quartet shines through like a blazing ray of sunshine in an otherwise overcast gloom of music. A contemporary approach to the score, the melody, the textures, would have spoken to this modern adaptation and allowed for more beautiful moments like the one provided by the Dvořák.

In spite of all this, it bears repeating that Little Women is an incredible achievement by director Greta Gerwig and the amazing cast. Desplat is obviously gifted composer, but this score leaves me wondering what further heights could have been realized had there been a deeper connection between score and script.