Alfie
Writer/director Charles Shyer's reinvention of the beloved 60's morality tale about a serial-womanizer's quest for meaning in life is musically rooted in a voice that's lived the experience: Mick Jagger. And if the Stones' oft-cliched frontman seems a decidedly left-field choice as film scorer, his chemistry with collaborator/former Eurythmics musical spark Dave Stewart yields a surprisingly warm, often introspective slate of songs and atmospheric underscore. Jagger's solo work has often been muddied by chasing the pop production zeitgeist of the moment, but his efforts with Stewart here largely turn on a stripped-down, organic folk-blues sensibility that can't escape mostly positive parallels with the Stones' own acoustic oeuvre. Soul singer Joss Stone turns in a masterfully bluesy cover of the original film's hit Bacharach-Davidtheme songthat belies her teenage years (also interpolating it into Stewart/Jagger's "Wicked Time," which also features noted Jamaican rapper "Nadz" Seid), while Sheryl Crow duets with Jagger on the single version of the song-score's thematic anchor, "Old Habits Die Hard." --Jerry McCulley