You've Got M@il: Original Motion Picture Score
As portrayed by Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, the romantic antagonists in Nora Ephron's e-mail age remake of Ernst Lubitsch's classicThe Shop Around the Cornerare variously witty, annoying, urbane, and self-absorbed. That's just the recipe for a frisky musical score, and George Fenton delivers with style (even the "annoying" part is playful here) and just a tip of the hat to the early ragtime and other Americana influences of Randy Newman at his best. The classic Arlen-Harburg "Over the Rainbow" is a recurring motif, and the album also features a wistfulGordon Jenkinsarrangement sung by the late, greatHarry Nilsson. The singer's beautiful "Remember" is also featured, his two-decades-old performance interpolated into a new arrangement by Fenton. Drama is easy, the old maxim goes, comedy is hard; and nothing is harder to convincingly score than a romantic comedy. Fenton does a fine job of it here.--Jerry McCulley