Hostage

I was, without irony, going to start this review by stating that 'if Jerry Goldsmith had a pound for every time he scored a film that was beneath his talents... etc.' but then realised that he earned plenty of money scoring innumerable films beneath his talents. Not only that, but almost always wrote something that could stand apart from, and outlive, the film for which it was originally composed. I rather think (and hope) that Alexandre Desplat will be just that little more choosy with his projects - as he appears to have been so far - and not get stuck scoring too many crap films. Having said that, Hostage was generally deemed to be an above average effort and, even if it didn't make huge waves at the box office, did respectably and garnered generally positive reviews. Several mentioned Desplat's music in a positive light and, unlike so many thriller scores, the score holds up superbly on CD. In fact, the quality of writing, while obviously different in character, is every bit as good as that for the more 'arty' films for which he has penned scores.
I am bound to say that the main theme, Child's Spirit, does feature a rather cliché wordless young vocalist - indeed, the talents of the composer's daughter, Antonia are on display here. However, Desplat Snr's fabulous gift for melody easily lifts it above the cliché and into the genuinely haunting and quite beautiful. Where, after a fine start, many composers might then sink into a morass of tired suspense licks, Desplat appears to be entirely unwilling to just bumble along, punctuating the tension with the odd action cue. Every track where a three note motif could potentially be the sum total of material for 2 minutes, Desplat always builds from his opening gambit, from adding a few neat orchestration touches (notably some extremely effective string harmonics which are suitably eerie) to simply appending additional motifs onto the original idea. This is all while maintaining the singular clarity of texture that has become one of the composer's finest attributes. There is no orchestral mush here and every orchestral line can be heard even in the handful of bravura moments such as Crawl Space, Talley's Plan or The Trade.

The album lists several character melodies; Talley's Theme is a little unmemorable, and Mars' is saved by some effective synthetic background effects, but Tommy's Theme, presented on recorder, with a delicate, vaguely Stravinskian accompaniment of strings and a little percussion is wonderful. While none are quite as memorable as the main theme, they are used effectively throughout the score and give further evidence as to the level of care Desplat has taken with his composition. One might argue that some of Desplat's score is too elegantly wrought for a thriller, but that's not really much of an issue on disc. In this context, it is engaging from beginning to end and on the odd occasion where things appear to be running out of steam, the tracks are generally short enough (although many segue seamlessly into the next) to ensure that there's something engaging only moments later. In fairness, a thriller score without a couple of quiet spots is nigh on impossible. Desplat keeps the ball rolling and the listener engaged for over an hour, plus throws in a pair of fine melodies and numerous memorable motifs. What more could you want?! Thoroughly recommended.