The Chumscrubber

Usually, small scale, personal dramas are the kind of movies where James Horner often excels as a film composer. Movies such as To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday, The Spitfire Grill and Iris comes to mind. They are all movies where dialogue is more important than sound effects, and where personal stories are given more focus than car chases, and they all have wonderful scores by James Horner. I mention this, because The Chumbscrubber is exactly the kind of film where Horner should be able to get his creativity flowing. And he has, to a certain extent.

The Chumscrubber is directed by Arie Posing, and sports a rather impressive cast list, which includes names like Glenn Close, Ralph Fiennes, Jason Isaacs and Allison Janney. It's a rather twisted story, and this is reflected in Horner's quirky, electronica based, score. Parts of the score evokes memories of Horner's more quiet scores, such as the already mentioned To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday, while other parts manage to sound quite fresh and inventive.

"Spreading Happiness All Around" opens with some weird metallic synth effects, soon replaced by a steady waltz rythm performed by pizzicato strings, joined by a solo saxophone presenting the score's main theme. It's a rather attractive, albeit simple, little theme, which gets a little more interesting as Horner adds soft synths, glockenspiel and clarinet. Like the score itself, the theme leans towards the dark side, with patches of light shining through occasionally.

"Kidnapping the Wrong Charlie" continues on the already entered path, with pizzicato strings and saxophone, creating an effective mood of uneasiness and tension, together with high synth pads, which drifts in and out of the piece. "Dolphins" introduces a quiet piano, supported by electronics - and here Horner manages to create a rather mysterious, but also very relaxing, piece - while "Pot Casserole" brings back the main theme and adds a subtle accordion to the pizzicato strings, saxophone and synths, finishing off with a very charming, albeit short, little waltz performed on piano.

"Digging Montage" is by far the most interesting and effective track on the album, with the latter part of the track evoking memories of piano based Horner scores such as Class Action and To Gillian. The first part, however, sounds like nothing Horner has ever done before. Starting with a simple repeated chord progression, Horner builds up the cue by adding sample upon sample, as well as piano, guitar and percussion. The result is an incredibly relaxing, albeit mysterious, piece and an impressive demonstration of Horner's, seeminly newfound, ability and fondness to work with electronics.

"Parental Rift/The Chumscrubber" adds some weird dissonance, and chaos, to the mix, and the latter half of the cue goes totally bananas with wailing, dissonant electric guitars. Interesting, sure, but not that memorable or pleasant on the ears. The three final cues tones down the music a little, bringing back the quirkiness and the waltz element. Pizzicato strings, piano and saxophone once again enters the stage and brings the score to a satisfying closure.

"Restraint" is a good word when describing Horner's score for The Chumscrubber. Due to low budget, or because of creative decisions, Horner stays away from a typical orchestral score, instead relying on solo performances and electronics. It's certainly an unusual score, at times, at least when compared to other scores by the composer, and this is without doubt a good thing. Horner's creativity certainly seems to flow when he gets to score small, indepent films like this one, and even if it's not one of the composer's best scores, it's still a solid effort, which should entertain Horner fans, and perhaps even impress the rest of the film score community a little.