I've never been a very big Horner fan, but I found this score to be very pleasant and different. I bought the film for $4 on DVD. Some of the music reminded me of Field Of Dreams. At amazon.com, there is even one reviewer who think some of it sounded like Tangerine Dream.
Much of the music is synth-based and low-key, it's just at the end of the film that orchestral elements can be heard.
I find you have to be in a very specific mood to listen to the whole CD.
I enjoy the quiet/low key nature but I do also enjoy the heart tugging/gut punching orchestral melodrama that is the last 30 minutes of the CD. The score contains of his best cues that he's ever written (the end credits sequence).
The CD is way too long (like many James Horner scores) but I always prefer that to someone editing it for me and maybe removing a cue I want in favour of one I don't. It's what I term an 'in the mood' score...you have to be ready for it to enjoy it. I think I have a pretty solid 30-35 minute programme on my player that I like muchly. The power of the tragic finale cue is very, very good. Horner knows his job. We were in a movie quiz, a few months back at the FACT cinema in Liverpool*, and they played a track from A Beautiful Mind (the bit with the knocking percussion) that we all guessed was this! Oops.
*(hey, it was an FSM get-together, as I was with Roy Donga, Mark Langdon and spymaster!)
