December 20, 2013

  • Wallfisch's Thriller Score for "Hours"

    Eric Heisserer (Final Destination 5) makes his writer/director debut with Hours which sets a man’s struggle to keep his premature infant daughter alive against the backdrop of Hurricane Katrina as hospital support becomes increasingly more difficult.  The film is an opportunity for Paul Walker (of many Fast and the Furious runs) a chance for a more serious solo dramatic turn.  Benjamin Wallfisch’s score manages to blend a variety of orchestral energy with ambient textures to balance this somewhat thriller-like music.

    The opening track, “Hospital”, places an interesting piano thematic idea over the top of pulsating rhythms and a growing intense orchestral atmosphere.  Wallfisch shifts to asymmetrical meters occasionally further unsettling the music as it churns along.  Searching string ideas help add emotional dramatic punch in “Tell Me She’s Fine.”  The music here swells forward with fast crescendo and decrescendo passages as well.  The shifts between interior character development music, providing tense reflective moments tinged with sadness and melancholy (sometimes aided by a beautiful cello statement as in “Searching for Abigail”) serves to provide good contrast.  Ambient textures are often added into these moments lending an additional eeriness to the music at times.  The latter tends to appear in moments like “Evacuation” where the music certainly suggests the “thriller” genre.  The balance allows for both an unsettling intensity and moments of light to break through with just enough action music.  Warm string writing for primary thematic material provides some sense of emotional release as well (“She Was Bulletproof”).  The score does seem to bog down a bit in the center of the disc a bit as amorphous textures become more standard and atmospheric textures replace thematic material (the result is that “Story of You” feels a bit too long here on its own).  More electronics tend to also come to the forefront as the music continues here falling into fairly standard thriller territory.  A few unusual syncopated stresses help provide some interest but mostly everything is atmospherics and tension-building.  By the end, all that is left is adding electric guitar ideas into the texture to create more intensity.  A nice trick, but not terribly interesting on its own, the result would certainly function very well within the context of the film.  The final track, “46th Hour” does have some rather interesting string writing that has an almost ethereal quality as it reaches outward with a warm emotional finale.

    Hours is an interesting thriller/drama hybrid score that features some interesting atmospheric writing with slight thematic hints that provide musical continuity.  Shifts to unusual meters also provide the sense of unbalance needed to drive home action sequences.  Wallfisch’s big string finishes also serve to lift the score out of normality.