The nomination for James Horner's score was something of a shoe in, although since I doubt it reached the audience and Academy voters like Titanic did, the odds of another win are frankly slim. In any event, on purely musical terms it's probably the least interesting of the candidates with a moderately successful mixture of the opening cue from Bicentennial Man and the eerie vocals of Sneakers. While it adds almost nothing new - the harmonies are almost the same and the melodies with only negligible differences - the clockwork rhythms against the vocals sum up the maths and the man in music very effectively.
Unlike the usual nameless vocalist (discounting Sissel's work on Titanic), Horner has here employed Charlotte Church whose delivery is perhaps a little intense for the featherlight, graceful sound that was conjured up for Sneakers. The orchestral sections are fairly standard Horner ebb and flow of strings, piano and woodwinds which is pleasant, but provides little variety - save for yet another brief Gayenne snippet for a more suspenseful mood.
All Love Can Be, performed again by Church is another none too inspired Horner and Will Jennings ballad, which continues the trend of having less and less interesting melodies. The score does manage to avoid being too sentimental and cloying, Horner keeping the orchestrations simple and the harmony with an undercurrent of melancholy which seems quite fitting. Still, it's hardly a great achievement and adds weight to my feeling that Horner hasn't come up with anything new or special since The Mask of Zorro. Horner does have the ability to paint broad, but well placed musical strokes, I just wish he'd find a new way of doing it.
Rating ~ Total Time ~ 71:07
While James Horner hasn't scored all of Ron Howard's films, he does seem to end up scoring almost all of Howard's best ones, from the early days of Cocoon to the superb docu-drama of Apollo 13. With A Beautiful Mind we have yet more proof that Russell Crowe is a major acting force and not just a new square jawed action hero - he can leave that to Ben Affleck and chums. The true story of John Nash has been reasonably well received although the cynical have suggested it's just Howard trying to nab his first Oscar. Howard isn't by any means a bad director, but there isn't much to suggest he's an exceptional one, but we'll find out on Oscar night what the Academy thinks.
Performed by Charlotte Church