A Shot at Glory
With its rural Scottish setting and thematic undercurrents of business versus local traditions and personal redemption, this Cinderella soccer tale seems to have a few things in common with Bill Forsyth'sLocal Hero, not the least of which is an evocative score by Dire Straits leader Mark Knopfler. The Scottish guitar hero again rises to the occasion, his acoustic "Sons of Scotland" theme underscoring the story's melancholy emotional landscape, if not necessarily its geographic one. To that end Knopfler bows to expected musical conventions by sprinkling the score with bagpipes, fiddles, and pennywhistles, yet shrewdly weaves them into a more modern, personal tapestry of guitar and pulsing rhythms (especially on the Highland reel-meets-electronica of "Four in a Row") familiar from his work with Dire Straits; tradition meetstempus fugit. Knopfler also serves up a trio of winning songs, whose tenor ranges from the understated macho anthem "He's the Man" to "Say Too Much," a dry, slinky cocktail of lounge jazz influences, and the melancholy folk lament "All That I Have in the World." While Knopfler's contemporary scoring efforts have been sparse and sometimes uneven, this soundtrack seems the perfect match of material and musician.--Jerry McCulley