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A review by JAMES SOUTHALL

This heavyweight awards candidate from first-time director Vadim Perelman stars Ben Kingsley and Jennifer Connelly and is based on Andre Dubus's book about an Iranian immigrant and his family's battle in the US over a house he buys in an auction, with tragic consequences.  Perelman managed to get an enormous amount of talent both in front of and behind the camera, from cinematographer Roger Deakins to composer James Horner.  Horner scored four films during 2003, with bizarre scheduling meaning that they ended up being released in quick succession; many people expected this movie to inspire the pick of those four.

In some ways it probably did - Horner has crafted a brilliant psychological score of perfect atmosphere for the movie - but one that fares considerably less well apart from it.  The opening "An Older Life" is a purely synthesised cue, an awkward and unsettling piece that probably sets the tone for the rest of the album.  "The Waves of the Caspian Sea", only the second cue, is one of the best - rising and falling like the tide, melancholy and sentimental as the endless horizon, it swirls with emotion; then "Old Photos, New Memories" presents a subdued piano theme.  The problem is that the final sixty minutes of the album feature very little change in mood, tone or melody from what is contained in the opening ten minutes, in those cues just described.

"Two People" is a mesmerising, enveloping piece (again for solo piano) though is so dour that it will drive as many people away as it attracts.  By and large however, the music goes on and on painting a brilliant portrait of subtle, restrained desperation but doing so by texture and atmosphere rather than melody or emotion.  "Kathy's Night", for instance, is basically a series of synth chords that seem to last forever, eternally unchanging.  I can't stress enough that this is the perfect approach for the movie - it just doesn't make for an engaging album of music.  The last three cues take up thirty minutes between them but are so downbeat and depressing that they take some stamina to get through - if you've even got that far - the strained emotions of parts of "The Shooting, a Payment for our Sins" are certainly the highlight.

House of Sand and Fog is that rare thing, a Horner score that really just doesn't quite work on album.  It's ironic really - the usual reasons that people wheel out to criticise Horner albums which don't deserve it can't be used - there is little or no overlap with previous scores, no overwrought sentiment or emotion - just music that can't really live away from the film for which it was written.  It's one of the most beautifully crafted scores of 2003 - but one of the dullest albums.

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Tracks

1. An Older Life (1:54)
2. The Waves of the Caspian Sea (4:00)
3. Old Photos, New Memories (3:23)
4. This is No Longer Your House (3:34)
5. Two People (3:49)
6. Kathy's Night (2:18)
7. Parallel Lives, Parallel Loves (5:22)
8. Behrani's Thoughts - Long Ago (4:49)
9. Break-In (2:34)
10. The Dreams of Kings (6:58)
11. The Shooting, a Payment for our Sins (15:18)
12. We Have Travelled So Far, it is Time to Return to our Path (9:05)
13. A Return to the Caspian, and to the Iran of Old (6:37)