Syriana
After last year'sGirl with a Pearl Earring, this CD confirms the much-deserved rise of French-born composer Alexandre Desplat in Hollywood. The success of this particular score is actually double-edged: It works wonders in the film because it never dictates the mood or imposes a viewpoint; instead, it's in such symbiosis with the images in Stephen Gaghan's political thriller that at times the music's impact is almost subliminal. That's a good thing when you watch the movie, but it also means that on its own, the CD's focus can fade in and out. Desplat tends to follow the less-showy European film-scoring model, i.e. he prefers subtlety to bloated orchestrations and tends to refrain from associating characters to musical themes. Though much of the film's action takes place in the Middle East, Desplat doesn't turn ethnic instrumentation into a cliché. And the way he instills a pervasive sense of dread on tracks such as "Driving in Geneva," "Access Denied," or "The Abduction" should be taught in film and music schools. For Desplat, less is always more.--Elisabeth Vincentelli