Buy it... only if you are a Rachel Portman completist and seek seventeen very pleasant, but hardly groundbreaking minutes of score.

Avoid it... if Portman's music is often too repetitive for your liking and the song compilation holds no interest for you either.

Portman

Because of Winn-Dixie: (Rachel Portman) It has been a few years since composer Rachel Portman returned to the genre of sugar-coated innocence that helped her established her hopelessly optimistic, upbeat styles in the 1990's. Perhaps a stereotypical Portman project from the days of old is Because of Winn-Dixie, a "child befriends dog" film based upon the Newberry Medal-winning children's novel of the same name by Kate DiCamillo. In a nutshell, a 10-year-old girl moves with her preacher father (feel-good film regular Jeff Daniels) to a small Florida town where she doesn't know anyone until she adopts a dog (the usual: big, old, ugly, stray) and uses her relationship with the animal to gain acceptance with others in the town and repair her strained relationship with her own father so that he can finally reveal why her mother ran away long ago. It may seem like an "oh, jeez" kind of storyline --certainly movies such as this have been made since the beginning to the industry-- but the premise continues to sell. With a host of child stars, the movie filmed in the Deep South of America, requiring that the songs and score bring that Southern hospitality to a vibrance that would appeal to both children and adult viewers. Director Wayne Wang had worked with Rachel Portman a few times before, with The Joy Luck Club in 1993 serving as the triumph of their collaboration. Portman's heartwarming orchestral sensibilities have been absent from many of her recent works, with the composer filling her time with projects that branch out from the stereotypical romances and other light dramas that have defined her career. Her skeptics and collectors will both recognize Because of Winn-Dixie as a score that will only reinforce their previously conceived opinions of Portman's styles, for the composer breaks absolutely no new ground with this effort.

			Learn more about supporting Filmtracks

Highlighted by acoustic guitar and solo string, the score's instrumentation stops barely short of making the room smell like baked potatoes and apple pie. Add Portman's very simplistic, pleasant melodies to the ingredients and the score drips with Americana spirit and warmth. Not a single note of trepidation hinders Because of Winn-Dixie, with every rolling major-key progression shifting the listener from one sunny morning to another. At its worst, Portman's score bubbles quietly in the distance, with perhaps a rambling piano or the guitar in the background. At its most inspired, Portman whips out her standard, octave-alternating string section rhythms and some light percussion (a tambourine and other fuzzy stuff) and presents her "Opal's Theme" with exuberance through solo flute and a moderately sized orchestral backing. The Southern flavour, outside of the numerous violin/viola solos, includes drawn out whole notes in background by a harmonica. Critics of this Portman style will quickly and correctly point to several thematic similarities between Because of Winn-Dixie and The Cider House Rules (among others that would probably qualify), and indeed Portman attempts nothing new this time around. Three solid cues of Portman's work appear on the Nettwerk America label, one that has released soundtracks in the past but very rarely presses albums with prominent score placement. About seventeen minutes of Portman material follows modern and recent era light rock songs on the Because of Winn-Dixie album (who can resist "Splish Splash" even today?). While hardcore score fanatics will scoff at the minimal Portman presence, seventeen minutes of her work here is appropriate given the lack of much new inspiration to be heard in it. Given that her music has been regularly appearing in the form of Oscar promos since 2000, more music may someday be available, but the release date of the film early in 2005 may negate those possibilities. For the Portman collector, it will be a delightful used-bin find. ***

Bias Check:

For Rachel Portman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.33 (in 25 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.39 (in 23,759 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.