First impressions can be a dangerous thing.  When I first listened to James Horner's score for Flightplan, I was checking my emails and browsing the internet.  The second time, I was reading a book about stochastic modelling of mortality (what a truly exciting life I lead).  If I hadn't intended to review it, I doubt I'd have listened a third time.  I barely remembered it was even playing most of the time, and when it did become a bit louder and demand a bit more attention, I heard lots of music I'd heard many times before from Horner.  As someone in 'Allo 'Allo might say, "What a mistake-a to make-a!"  Because I did intend to review it, I listened again a third time, more carefully this time; this prompted a fourth, fifth and several subsequent listens, each time revealing something new about the music.  It's a good job I didn't stick with my first impressions.  (What is even more idiotic than judging an album based on listening to it while doing something else, though, is those people who judge it based on 30-second clips they listen to online; if ever a score demonstrated how truly worthless short sound clips are, it's this one.  I was dismayed to read the number of people completely discuss the album based on listening to a couple of clips online; regardless of how it actually is, it does a great disservice to everyone involved to reach rash judgments based on a short sampling of an album, and by implication encourage others not to purchase an album they may otherwise have done, and quite possibly enjoyed a great deal.)

If Flightplan demonstrates anything, it's that James Horner is one of the most intelligent and able composers who is working in film.  In amongst all the people who compose-by-computer, it is frequently hard to remember that there are some genuine, old-fashioned composers who sit there and come up with genuine music to accompany films, working not only as dramatic underscore but as wonderful music in its own right.  To hear a score as well-structured and beautifully-crafted as Flightplan is rare indeed.  The fifty minute album only contains eight pieces; each is constructed marvelously well, each actually featuring a beginning, middle and end, each seeing Horner have something to say, each moving along from one point to another.  Some of his long albums tend to get just too rambling to remain interesting; by restricting the music to a shorter length, the composer doesn't waste a note.

As I said (or at least, rambled on top of) in my opening paragraph, this isn't music that reaches out and grabs your attention; it's music which actually needs to be listened to, properly, to be appreciated.  On first sight, the lengthy "Leaving Berlin" which opens the album doesn't seem to have much to say; with a motif that seems to be straight out of A Beautiful Mind (and Sneakers and Searching for Bobby Fischer) being endlessly repeated, it is tempting to dismiss it as just another example of excessive repetition from previous scores, but Horner develops the motif beautifully, in the middle of the piece introducing a delicate, tender piano theme which isn't particularly memorable, but which sets the mood beautifully.  "Missing Child" unsurprisingly gets more urgent, but Horner does it in a rather subtle way, introducing some synths in an unexpected but highly-effective way, and using major tonal shifts to stimulate a growing feeling of panic but more importantly bewilderment at what might be going on.

"The Search" opens with urgent, desperate material, once again perfectly capturing the moment.  It's a ten-minute tour de force from the composer, featuring some typical action/suspense writing highlighting percussion, strings and piano.  The middle section includes some particularly striking passages with rather gentle wind passages accompanied by shaken percussion instruments, creating a sense of calm with an underbelly of desperation; and then all hell breaks loose, with Horner's trademark crashing pianos heightening the tension and action.  The crashing piano device he has used on many occasions (probably most famously in Apollo 13, but I think it started in Brainstorm, a long time ago) is one of his most brilliant inventions and I'm surprised that other composers haven't picked up on it, so effective is it.  This is followed by "So Vulnerable", music which perfectly sums up the state of mind suggested by the cue title - it's a set of modest, subtle variations on the motivic strand which may be considered the main theme, and is really quite haunting.

Far darker action music is introduced in "Creating Panic", in which Horner now utilises the forces of a great number of grand pianos (eight pianists are listed in the orchestra credits in the CD booklet, and I imagine all are deployed here) and percussionists to create a spellbinding atmosphere.  Horner uses genuine, unsettling dissonance for the first time I can remember in years; he does it very well, too.  "Opening the Casket" is the shortest cue of the score, but Horner still finds something to say in it, introducing more long-lined (though dark-as-night) melody, using intriguing harmonies to create a sense of mystery and hope, finally allowing the main theme to burst forth for the first time in the score; it has quite an impact, coming so late on.  "Carlson's Plan" is another lengthy action cue; the inclusion of ethnic wind instruments instantly recalls similar pieces in Clear and Present Danger (a highly-underrated Horner score) and while the relevance of it is hard to understand, it makes for fine music.  As the piece goes on, Horner reintroduces the synths and a new, almost anthemic melody; it's thrilling stuff.  The finale, "Mother and Child", is refreshingly free from Hollywood sentiment, offering instead a mature and reflective conclusion to the score.

Horner attracts more flak than most film composers and some of it is justified; because of that, it can be easy to forget that he is an extremely talented composer.  Unusually, there are four orchestrators listed for this score along with Horner, but despite that it's clear that he knows how to compose for an orchestra.  He's one of the few film composers who does unexpected things in his scores, makes unusual choices, and keeps his music interesting.  There are some dull scores along the way, but when he's on fire, it's always a treat.  Flightplan is an unusual movie indeed to make his creative juices flow to quite this extent, but flow they did, and this is a score that simply gets better and better with each new listen.  It's a treat for Horner fans, and something to fly in the face of his detractors who suggest he's lost it; if truth be told, he continues to be one of the leading lights.  Flightplan is not a score which will do much for those who like the composer only because of his more obvious scores for things like Titanic - it doesn't feature big themes, or showy moments - but it does feature strong music, well-composed, beautifully-realised.