A review by JAMES SOUTHALL

A very strange and curiously unaffecting film, Powder seems to be far less than the sum of its parts.  Sean Patrick Flannery stars in the everyday tale of an albino boy who is bullied at school, kept in a cellar by his parents and has magic powers.  While everything taken individually about the film seems OK, it somehow just doesn't connect, and did of course attract a degree of notoriety on its release after revelations were made about its director's past (and there are some scenes in the film which take on a slightly unsavoury flavour when viewed with the knowledge of those revelations).  As always with these substandard films, Jerry Goldsmith's score takes on a life of its own and is far superior than what anyone else could have written.

It is dominated by an outstanding theme, one of Goldsmith's best - sweeping, moving and very, very beautiful, it seems to demonstrate an innate understanding of what the movie was about that wasn't demonstrated by anyone else working on it.  The old guard of Goldsmith fans were horrified that he would write something quite so slushy, but nevertheless it is particularly good slush!  To all intents and purposes, much of the rest of the score is a set of variations on the theme, but it is so good that the score does not become tiresome or overly-repetitive.  Compared with the more popular Rudy, Powder has just an attractive a theme (if not moreso) and Goldsmith does more interesting things with it, culminating in the stunning finale "Everywhere", one of the most moving and beautiful pieces he wrote during the decade, certainly rivalling Rudy's "The Final Game".  The touching "First Kiss" is another highlight.  Elsewhere, Goldsmith does move into other territory from time to time, with "Nightmare in the Forest" being a chilling piece of horror music up with the best of them.  The lengthy "Steven and the Snow" is another affecting piece, with the modest ensemble clearly being a precursor to the most beautiful sections of Star Trek: Insurrection.  "Freakshow" is a much darker track, with somewhat abrasive synths added to the mix, but it still retains something of an air of magic and wonder.

This score is pretty much an essential purchase for fans of the modern-day Goldsmith style.  The opening and closing tracks are stunningly beautiful, and there is also some lovely underscore in between.  It is uncomplex and unchallenging, but then the same thing could be said of other lovely scores from the composer like The Flim-Flam Man or Raggedy Man; highly recommended.

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Tracks

1. Powder (4:32)
2. Spoon Trick and the Treacle (2:37)
3. Nightmare in the Forest (5:10)
4. First Kiss (2:25)
5. Steven and the Snow (8:26)
6. Freakshow (4:42)
7. Wanna See a Trick? (4:01)
8. Everywhere (3:54)