It’s the Cinderella fable’s turn to be given a 1990s make-over. Though the film’s look is in keeping with the period, where the story branches out is in the modern approach to character: Drew Barrymore’s Danielle is a tomboy, scuffs and scrapes abound, and these heroic escapades called for a Korngoldian sound. The “Main title” presents a traditionally romantic theme for strings – a sound Fenton specifically wanted to dominate the love-story. There are some inventive uses of varying types of pipe instruments: “Cinderella” incorporates period end-blown flutes and recorders; elsewhere a contra-bass flute takes up a solo line. Other notable touches come from pizzicato strings, harpsichord, uillean pipes, guitar, and a succession of well-mixed percussion, both period and modern. There is also splendid use of the choir of Magdalen College Oxford in “The royal wedding”, performed a cappella.
Ever After is the most full-blooded of Fenton’s scores to date. Rounded off with a pleasant song by Texas (Put Your Arms Around Me), this score is welcome reassurance that the ‘classic’ romantic sound of Hollywood’s Golden Age still has a place in today’s cinema.Paul Tonks