Pay it Forward
Thomas Newman
" Decent drama and strange quirkiness, but we heard it before by now "Written by Thomas Glorieux - Review of the regular release
Pay it Forward, a movie directed by Mimi Leder starring Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt and Haley Joel Osment was a good movie that could have been better. It tells the story of a boy who want to improve the world by paying a deed forward, so the recipient doesn't pay the deed back but actually gives someone else a deed instead, by that touching everyone in the outcome. The movie was so so received, but the performances were nonetheless celebrated.
For the music Thomas Newman was given the choice to continue the road he started with American Beauty, the score that would influence his career for many more dramas to come. Starting with strange yet thank god brief sfx, "Possibility" immediately shows us the sound we're gonna get for the next 40 minutes. The piano, the guitar, the eclectic bells and chimes (including a brief but catchy piano melody that's returning in tracks 9 and 21), meaning the sound we by now grew up with in American Beauty and Erin Brokovich. And the continuing 40 minute presentation doesn't change a lot after that, because it's at one moment moody ("Car Trouble"), at another time strange ("Cereal Bum"), and in the end occasionally enjoyable.
Because various moments do deliver something meaningful, like the dramatic piano play that reminds me of Meet Joe Black in "Fixture Vodka" or the tender love "One Kiss", "Sleepover" and "I Forgive You" radiates. In that aspect, Pay it Forward actually sounds delightful and typically Thomas Newman. However it's in the eclectic upbeat cues that one loses focus with the score and the idea behind it. Tracks like "Tardiness", "Cosmic Aristotle" and its arsenal of musical sfx after that, they tend to split the impression in 2. In the end Pay it Forward is a bit easier to appreciate than Erin Brokovich, because of the dramatic Thomas Newman esque piano and string moments. But mostly we are confronted by Thomas Newman's quirky mind and his musical way of expressing it, and that in numerous short tracks doesn't deliver anything to remember it by.
Track Listing
1. Possibility (2.34)
2. Car Trouble (1.08)
3. Washer Vodka (1.53)
4. Cereal Bum (1.04)
5. Come Out Jerry (1.10)
6. Fixture Vodka (1.37)
7. Rat Bastard (0.56)
8. One Kiss (1.46)
9. Tardiness (2.11)
10. In Recovery (1.01)
11. Jaguar (1.03)
12. Dumpster (1.09)
13. Sleepover (4.32)
14. Cosmic Aristotle (1.56)
15. Euphemism (1.05)
16. Homeless (1.00)
17. Pay it forward (1.04)
18. Night and Day And Night (1.07)
19. Asthma (0.59)
20. Powers of Three (1.03)
21. Desert Drive (1.34)
22. Wasted Air (1.42)
23. The Bad Thing (0.51)
24. Gasoline (1.37)
25. Velocity Organ (1.27)
26. I Forgive You (2.21)
27. Calling All Angels: Jane Siberry (5.32)
Total Length: 45.22
For the music Thomas Newman was given the choice to continue the road he started with American Beauty, the score that would influence his career for many more dramas to come. Starting with strange yet thank god brief sfx, "Possibility" immediately shows us the sound we're gonna get for the next 40 minutes. The piano, the guitar, the eclectic bells and chimes (including a brief but catchy piano melody that's returning in tracks 9 and 21), meaning the sound we by now grew up with in American Beauty and Erin Brokovich. And the continuing 40 minute presentation doesn't change a lot after that, because it's at one moment moody ("Car Trouble"), at another time strange ("Cereal Bum"), and in the end occasionally enjoyable.
Because various moments do deliver something meaningful, like the dramatic piano play that reminds me of Meet Joe Black in "Fixture Vodka" or the tender love "One Kiss", "Sleepover" and "I Forgive You" radiates. In that aspect, Pay it Forward actually sounds delightful and typically Thomas Newman. However it's in the eclectic upbeat cues that one loses focus with the score and the idea behind it. Tracks like "Tardiness", "Cosmic Aristotle" and its arsenal of musical sfx after that, they tend to split the impression in 2. In the end Pay it Forward is a bit easier to appreciate than Erin Brokovich, because of the dramatic Thomas Newman esque piano and string moments. But mostly we are confronted by Thomas Newman's quirky mind and his musical way of expressing it, and that in numerous short tracks doesn't deliver anything to remember it by.
Track Listing
1. Possibility (2.34)
2. Car Trouble (1.08)
3. Washer Vodka (1.53)
4. Cereal Bum (1.04)
5. Come Out Jerry (1.10)
6. Fixture Vodka (1.37)
7. Rat Bastard (0.56)
8. One Kiss (1.46)
9. Tardiness (2.11)
10. In Recovery (1.01)
11. Jaguar (1.03)
12. Dumpster (1.09)
13. Sleepover (4.32)
14. Cosmic Aristotle (1.56)
15. Euphemism (1.05)
16. Homeless (1.00)
17. Pay it forward (1.04)
18. Night and Day And Night (1.07)
19. Asthma (0.59)
20. Powers of Three (1.03)
21. Desert Drive (1.34)
22. Wasted Air (1.42)
23. The Bad Thing (0.51)
24. Gasoline (1.37)
25. Velocity Organ (1.27)
26. I Forgive You (2.21)
27. Calling All Angels: Jane Siberry (5.32)
Total Length: 45.22