In Treatment (Soundtrack) by Richard Marvin - Review

Marvin's Treatment
Review by Richard Buxton

With music taking centre stage in many recent major television series such as LOST, HUMAN TARGET and 24 it almost comes as a surprise when the score takes a backseat and allows the drama onscreen to carry the weight. Shows such as the aforementioned three are universally known for their enigmatic, adventurous and intense themes, making their analysis somewhat easier than RICHARD MARVIN’S work for IN TREATMENT.

With the exclusion of AVI BELLELI’S title theme music from the score, it becomes difficult to identify any overarching theme for the series. While “Jake & Amy (theme) – Week 1 – Season 1” (4) and “Sophie – Week 2 – Season 1” (2) are used during the credits, the tracks consist of ideas found only sparsely elsewhere. With most episodes detailing the sessions of a different patient, the only identifiable consistencies in theme or instrumentation come when a particular patient is granted multiple tracks across the soundtrack. For example Gina, a character with 6 tracks in the score release. “Gina – Week 5 – Season 1” (7) and ”Gina – Week 1 – Season 1” (16) mirror one another in instrumentation and their pensive tone, but it’s there that the similarities come to an end. No theme becomes apparent, just mood and timbre.

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Surrogates (Soundtrack) by Richard Marvin - Reviewed

No Substitute for Mostow and Marvin
Review By Helen San

SURROGATES (2009) stars Bruce Willis as a die-hard cop. No surprise there. But there's a twist: he's a young Bruce Willis mannequin remotely controlled by the current aging Bruce Willis lying in a high-tech reclining chair. In that futuristic world, everyone has an ageless, beautiful model of themselves (called surrogates) interacting with each other, while their real, imperfect selves are hidden behind electronic circuitry and closed bedroom doors. Though the movie has car chases, foot chases, fights, and murders, SURROGATES is at heart a social commentary about the avatar-happy online community that hides behind usernames and other artificial façades.

Most famous for U-571 and all five seasons of SIX FEET UNDER, RICHARD MARVIN has largely worked in television, scoring such popular series as WITHOUT A TRACE and a long list of TV movies. SURROGATES, directed by long time collaborator Jonathan Mostow, represents his second album release and composer credit for a big budget movie (after U-571). While U-571 (also with director Mostow) was generally well-received as a good listen, it was sometimes criticized for being too derivative of existing scores. This is not an uncommon ill to befall scores whose directors fall too much in love with temp tracks and may not reflect the creative vision of the composer. SURROGATES, then, is MARVIN's second chance to prove he's got the originality and presence for a major motion picture.


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