With this new version of Oliver Twist, director Roman Polanski apparently wanted to make something his kids could see, as opposed to the disturbing stuff he usually produces. Still, Charles Dickens is at the slightly gloomier end of the literary spectrum, but I rather think films for kids are more better when with a little darkness. One composer whose work is usually entirely without darkness is that of Rachel Portman, whose perkiness is far more appropriate to Jane Austen (her Oscar winning score to Emma, for example), than the oppressive streets of Dickensian London. Indeed, the streets of said city are musically depicted in the opening cue which is - you guessed it - a mixture of bouncing strings and a charming trumpet melody. It is at least a pretty good tune, but then most Portman scores have a good tune, but a less predictable start would have been welcome.

However, by the time Oliver Runs Away and meets The Artful Dodger, starts learning The Game and Learns the Hard Way, Portman does the unthinkable and turns her usual mannerisms into the minor mode and it almost sounds threatening. One particularly fine moment comes at the close of Fagin's Loot where some spry string led action writing - almost evoking Danny Elfman - puts her overused string obbligatos to more interesting use. Oliver Learns the Hard Way and The Escape From Fagin do likewise and the slight edge to the writing is an entirely welcome change in mood. Portman never gets to the kind of intensity that the material deserves, but at least it's not endlessly chipper. Indeed, there isn't much let up in the darker sections until the unpromisingly titled Newgate Prison where Oliver foregoes his misspent youth for a new life with Mr Brownlow.

Rachel Portman is one of those composers who has a very distinctive style, but given how simplistic it is to start with, it's difficult to find much to get excited about with each new score. I cannot deny that there are some fine moments in Oliver Twist and the darker edge is a blessed relief from the usual boundless perkiness of most Portman scores (although naturally a side effect of the type of film on which she works), but at almost an hour, there is an insufficient variety in, or variation on, melodic material to sustain the running time. A good twenty minutes could have been cut without any missing anything special. Anyone coming to it without prior knowledge of the composer's work would doubtless find it engaging enough, but anyone with a passing acquaintance with her prior output will find all the usual Portman tics in place (albeit darkened), but not a lot more.

Rating ~

1. Streets of London (2:00)
2. The Road to the Workhouse (3:03)
3. A Kind Old Woman (2:04)
4. Oliver Runs Away (2:31)
5. The Artful Dodger (1:49)
6. Fagin's Loot (2:54)
7. The Game (2:14)
8. Oliver Learns the Hard Way (5:38)
9. Watching Mr Bronlow's House (2:17)
10. The Escape from Fagin (1:13)
11. Prelude to a Robbery (1:48)
12. The Robbery (5:09)
13. Toby and the Wounded Oliver (1:20)
14. Nancy's Secret Journey (2:29)
15. The Murder (2:27)
16. Wanted: Bill Sykes & a Fierce Dog (2:50)
17. The Death of Bill Sykes (6:12)
18. Newgate Prison (5:20)

Total Time ~ 53:18