Buy it... only if the score was of interest to you in the film itself, for it will offer little intrigue or excitement for a first-time album listener.

Avoid it... if you are expecting a continuation of the engaging suspense writing that you heard from Craig Armstrong in The Bone Collector or The Quiet American.

Armstrong

The Clearing: (Craig Armstrong) Appearances by actor Robert Redford on the big screen have been becoming a rare event in the 2000's, with two full years of non-activity before leading the cast of The Clearing. The directorial debut of film producer Pieter Jan Brugge, The Clearing has an the all-star cast rounded out by Willem Dafoe and Helen Mirren, and the film relies solely upon their performances of the twist-filled plot to maintain audience interest in it. For much of its running time, The Clearing is your standard kidnapping film, although it attempts to distinguish itself by using its own sudden surprises rather than being a psychological conversational piece. Audiences and critics have been largely unswayed by the film, typically finding the characters too remote to care about and remaining emotionally distanced from them. Thus, what had once been considered one of the sure, Oscar favorites of the year has been largely forgotten just a few weeks after its awkward summer release. For the films he had produced (Heat and The Insider, among others), Pieter Jan Brugge had been involved in projects that utilized a wide range of composers. Australian based Craig Armstrong is slowly, but certainly working his way into the genre of thrillers despite being attached most notably to projects such as Moulin Rouge and Love Actually. His work for both The Bone Collector and The Quiet American was masterful at combining suspense with dramatic weight. But none of that engaging kind of material is to be heard this time. For The Clearing, Armstrong would tone back the ensemble and attempt a more personal approach, even with many of the same elements typical to Armstrong's work present here. At the center of many of his works is the piano, often performed by Armstrong himself, and once again, The Clearing is a piano-centered work with Armstrong as the primary performer on both that and the electronics.

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The merits of the piano are perhaps strong in The Clearing, for it is the ultimate instrument of the home, and, as in the history of Hollywood, the piano has stood for family values and pleasant, suburban existences. These parallels with the film are extended by the use of a solo violin for a handful of cues in The Clearing. Also at issue in the film are the class differences between Redford and Dafoe's characters, and the solo violin is a classy representation of the wealth involved with the characters and their motivations. Along with these two solo instruments, Armstrong relies on two other elements; first, his usual collection of electronic samples and keyboarding is rolled out for the suspenseful scenes in the woods, or during the outbursts that occur back at the primary residence. The second element is a moderately sized string section of an orchestra that occasionally lends emotional depth to some of the equally emotional scenes in the film. Armstrong does provide a title theme, although its soothing and inviting character --both on violin and piano-- are just a percussion section away from being effective in a modern romance film. The repeated performances of theme are solemn in this case, however, and never achieve any level of satisfaction in their rather mundane progression until the "I Have Everything I Need" cue. The suspense cues are minimalistic in construction and only allow their electronic rumblings to rise in volume for two or three cues. The key twist in the plot near the end is accompanied by very low-key electronics and the single pulsating of a bass-string note... nothing outrageous and nothing particularly interesting. Armstrong's effort has the basic personality necessary for the film, but like the film, it fails to draw the emotional connection between the listener and the story. If the warmth in "I Have Everything I Need" had been established earlier in the film and score, then perhaps it would be worth caring about (although the point of the plot probably wouldn't have allowed it). It's a mundane and underplayed dramatic effort with five minutes of theme worth any compilation. Note: The Varèse Sarabande label has unfortunately made the heinous faux pas of printing track titles that reveal key twists in the plot. Be aware of this if you want to be surprised by the film! **

Bias Check:

For Craig Armstrong reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.75 (in 8 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.55 (in 42,490 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.