A review by JAMES SOUTHALL

Those of us who became so enthralled with James Horner's dynamic early works would have laughed in the face of anyone who suggested that some day he would start to write music which could be described as textural and held little or no entertainment value away from the film but, after last year's House of Sand and Fog comes this year's The Forgotten, a film which is surely destined to live up to its name.  Sadly, so is the score.

The movie's rather strange plot centres around a woman being told that she has somehow imagined eight years worth of memories of her son (who has now died) and that he never existed.  For all its flaws, the film does have a strong cast (Julianne Moore, Gary Sinise, Anthony Edwards amongst others) and can at times be quite captivating.  The score fits it like a glove - ambient, textural and almost entirely synthesised.  The track title of the opening cue essentially sums up the entire score - "an unsettling calm" - it certainly is.  There is virtually no melody, simply a series of oft-repeated chord progressions which suggest something spooky is going on, but rarely letting go with the chills any further.  It's slick but never truly listenable.

Occasionally Horner drags the listener out of slumber with some more dynamic, almost techno-like synth percussion ("Remember...", "Containment of a Darker Purpose") but rather than being just dull, these passages are downright awful, almost creating the same kind of impression as those cringe worthy "comedy" scenes on television in which some well-spoken person of mature years tries to impersonate a rap artist.  Music like that is best left to those composers who are familiar enough with the style to sufficiently emulate it, which Horner seems not to be.

Now, I'm all for composers maturing, branching out into new arenas and so on, but it seems so long since Horner wrote a straight score full of memorable themes and exciting orchestral music, it would be simply wonderful to see him to it again.  He's one of the finest film composers there is, but in truth there are dozens of others who could have written a score like this one for The Forgotten - it's a somnambulant album as dull as any the composer's ever put out.  It may work OK in the film but I can't even close with my typical "if it were half as long it would really be OK" comment, because there's nothing at all of interest.  

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Tracks

1. An Unsettling Calm (4:27)
2. Remember... (4:26)
3. In Memories Only, The Empty Page (7:52)
4. Containment of a Darker Purpose (7:51)
5. The Experiment on Innocence (4:15)
6. Confronting Forever (3:49)
7. Re-assembling Shattered Pieces (3:51)
8. Profound Emptiness... The Hangar (8:47)
9. Erasing the Truth (6:03)
10. Children, the Unbroken Bond (3:39)
11. End Credits (4:29)