I thought the music was fantastic and evocative. As a matter of fact, although I really like Glass's music, I hadn't even been thinking about it until I read the comments here - so I obviously did not find it obtrusive at all. I remember thinking it was entirely effective.
I attended a live performance by the Philipp Glass ensemble of the music from Koyaanisqatsi (sp?) fairly recently. The film was shown while the musicians performed in front of it. But I remember being more involved in the film - with the music as accompaniment - than I was in the actual performance of the music. Since most of the instruments were electronic keyboards, this is unsuprising - there wasn't much to actually watch apart from the film. But the effect in Notes on a Scandal was the same. The pulsing rise and fall of Glass's score was a perfect compliment to the emotional rise and fall of the film.
My only caveats about the film were that it relied too much on Judi Dench's voiceover for my taste. Even with the medium of a diary, I find this technique obstrusive and artificial (imagine what whould happen to Catcher in the Rye if it were filmed this way). I also found a couple of the characterizations a little contrived - especially that of the young lad. Too subtle in his duplicity to be a convincing 15-year-old (and I'm a highschool teacher myself). This would have been fine if the film's poin-of-view had been consistently that of the Judi Dench character, but it was not.
I'm going on and on and will now stop, except to say I loved the film and its 'moral darkness'!. My wife and I talked about it for two days after seeing it.
I thought the music was fantastic and evocative. As a matter of fact, although I really like Glass's music, I hadn't even been thinking about it until I read the comments here - so I obviously did not find it obtrusive at all. I remember thinking it was entirely effective.
I attended a live performance by the Philipp Glass ensemble of the music from Koyaanisqatsi (sp?) fairly recently. The film was shown while the musicians performed in front of it. But I remember being more involved in the film - with the music as accompaniment - than I was in the actual performance of the music. Since most of the instruments were electronic keyboards, this is unsuprising - there wasn't much to actually watch apart from the film. But the effect in Notes on a Scandal was the same. The pulsing rise and fall of Glass's score was a perfect compliment to the emotional rise and fall of the film.
My only caveats about the film were that it relied too much on Judi Dench's voiceover for my taste. Even with the medium of a diary, I find this technique obstrusive and artificial (imagine what whould happen to Catcher in the Rye if it were filmed this way). I also found a couple of the characterizations a little contrived - especially that of the young lad. Too subtle in his duplicity to be a convincing 15-year-old (and I'm a highschool teacher myself). This would have been fine if the film's poin-of-view had been consistently that of the Judi Dench character, but it was not.
I'm going on and on and will now stop, except to say I loved the film and its 'moral darkness'!. My wife and I talked about it for two days after seeing it.