House of Sand & Fog
A California real estate dispute may hardly seem the foundation for  riveting drama, but in director  Vadim Perelman's adaptation of Andre  Dubus II's novel it becomes an unflinching, yet crucially non-judgmental  study of disparate characters caught up in a spiraling conflict where  home is considerably more than a place to live. Composer James Horner  takes the medium-budget project as an opportunity to break with much of  the melodic expectations of his Hollywood fare, coloring the film's more  personally-scaled drama with an introspective score that turns on  masterful musical evocations of mood and emotion. Horner begins with a  deft electronic/orchestral synthesis ("An Older Life") that both recalls  some of T-Dream's more evocative cinematic moments and subtly sets up  the score's melancholy emotional tone. From there he relies heavily on  autumnal, string writing (reminiscent of Copland and Barber) and spare  piano flourishes, seasoned with inventive rhythmic touches, to carry its  moody tone forward. While it may draw on some of the same minimalist and  post-modern influences asA Beautiful Mind, it has a wholly different  emotional cast; a dark, but deeply rewarding musical journey.--Jerry McCulley