Buy it... only if you are a top tier, grade-A, die-hard collector of Thomas Newman's unconventional rhythmic styles.

Avoid it... if you found nothing appealing about Newman's far more attractive and interesting variation on the same idea for American Beauty.

Newman

Erin Brockovich: (Thomas Newman) The true story of Erin Brockovich was intriguing enough to alone generate the tension necessary to make Steven Soderbergh's film work. Following the same general idea of A Civil Action from the previous year, the actual events of Erin Brockovich detail a cover-up of water contamination by a large energy company, and the lowly attorney and his controversial clerk who help bust it open. Actress Julia Roberts earned massive amounts of respect for her performance as the titular clerk, bringing the much-discussed woman's crude mannerisms to life in convincing fashion. The film's balanced emphasis on both the professional and personal trials that she experiences during this time (and the coincidental news of water contamination being discussed nationally at the time) is what helped Universal Pictures sell the film to audiences. Soderbergh's collaboration with Thomas Newman may not overshadow that between the director and Cliff Martinez in terms of mainstream popularity, but Newman's work for him would yield an Academy Award nomination in 2007 for The Good German. Not long before the release of Erin Brockovich, Newman had made waves in early 2000 with his famous expression of disgust on television when he failed to win an Oscar for American Beauty. Of Newman's many nominations throughout the years (with no win as of 2008), American Beauty likely presented him with his best shot, and the clunky but likable style of that score became heavily influential in arthouse and commercial music, as well as Newman's own career, thereafter. The composer was on a streak of blockbuster success in the late 1990's, and it is without a doubt that executives at Universal were hoping for Newman to extend the unique sound of cultural detachment in American Beauty to Erin Brockovich. Newman succeeds in doing that, but he is forced to tone back the volume of that style to such a degree that it really makes no appreciable or memorable impact, sucking all the life out of the sound.

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In fact, Newman's music for Erin Brockovich is such a minimalistic reinterpretation on American Beauty that it doesn't really deserve an album of its own. The film featured very little score material, heard in the 26 minutes pressed on Sony's album. Slight bluegrass rhythms and occasional twists of jazz are conveyed by Newman's piano performances, the score's only true identity. These rhythms are pure Newman in style, instantly recognizable as his work, and yet they accomplish so little that they don't offer much to the listener. They are typically accompanied by appropriate electric bass to round out the soundscape, but Newman really pours on the slapping and clicking sound effects to fill the void with sound. The handful of cues with this material, despite their basic structures, are the highlight of the work. Meandering synthetic tones, sometimes using fragments of the piano theme, are extended without ever developing into anything more substantive. While there are a few cues, especially late in the film, that throw the strange sampling effects at you forwards and backwards, Erin Brockovich has none of the quirky charm of American Beauty. Some of the cues built around the sound effects are nearly impossible to tolerate. The score's watered-down ramblings are typically low in pitch, creating a dull ambience only worsened by a recording quality that sounds as if the film were taking place underwater. There is nothing here at all to match the title character's undeniable charisma. The 26 minutes of score material on the album is spread across 21 tracks, and the brevity of each cue is another fatal hindrance. The highlight of the album for the vast majority of the movie-going public will be the inclusion of the two Sheryl Crow songs. While both decent, the second one (at the end of the album: "Everyday is a Winding Road") was a chart hit. Many will recall its use in the trailers for Erin Brockovich, and its appearance here on the album is a welcomed move by Sony. As for Newman's score, it's hard to imagine anything less stimulating on album. It may be appropriate for the highly conversational film, but it doesn't stand a chance on its own. *   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Thomas Newman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.14 (in 28 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.13 (in 53,317 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.