The latest stunning film by Russell Crowe, 'A Beautiful Mind' again features the talents of a supreme score writer after Hans Zimmer's epic 'Gladiator'. Surely James Horner can be said to have produced the most successful soundtrack of all time with his two albums for 'Titanic', a score that still has the capacity to raise the hair on the head.
This time he is more concerned with intricate and palette like detail with music that blends quite magnificently with the film's cerebral subject matter. The first tracks are also suitably titled with 'A kaleidoscope of mathematics' and 'Creating Governing Dynamics' rather reminiscent of the descent in the bowels of the Atlantic Ocean for the 'Titanic' wreck. However the music then develops into a marvellous whole that really shows what Horner is capable of. A serene sense of romanticism and sheer beauty creeps into the fantastic 'Real or Imagined' and the almost unbearably nostalgic 'Teaching Mathematics Again'.
The lovely voice of Charlotte Church soars to high heaven in 'All Love Can Be', could this be another 'My Heart Will Go On'?! To sum up, the score shows that Horner is still one of the best when it comes to scoring films of huge emotional magnitude.
Copyright © 2002, Gerald Fenech