Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you have always loved the way James Horner employs solo flute performances atop a bed of harmonic orchestral atmosphere to convey the imagination of a child. Avoid it... if you expect to hear anything truly unique in this, a pretty little score that is saturated with Horner techniques utilized in every case throughout the composer's career. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
House of Cards: (James Horner) Faring poorly at the conclusion of its production process was Michael Lessac's sole directorial effort for the big screen, House of Cards. After gathering dust for two years due to the lack of a distributor, the movie was picked up for an obscure release in 1993 and only earned $300,000 in grosses. Kathleen Turner and Tommy Lee Jones work to unlock the psyche of a young girl emotionally scarred by the death of her father while he was studying Mayan temples in Mexico. The girl gets caught up in the mysticism of that region and can only communicate through stacks of cards and other bizarre means. She is finally saved when her mother (Turner) discovers a way to defy the supposedly professional avenues of help (represented by Jones) and bring the damaged family back together. It was a redeeming topic with a decent cast that probably was better suited for a television release. That did not stop composer James Horner from pouring a fair amount of emotional depth into the score for House of Cards despite a relatively limited budget. It has been noted throughout Horner's career that he has a certain gift for capturing the imagination of children and young adults, with scores from Something Wicked This Way Comes to Boy in the Striped Pajamas exuding a wondrous atmosphere of a child's inner world while also addressing the darkness that invades that reality from the circumstances of real life events. In conveying the same general spirit of airy intimacy, House of Cards is frankly quite reminiscent of Horner's other works of similar demeanor and stature. Of course, the composer's own habit of regurgitating the same structures and orchestrations exaggerates this effect, but for the learned Horner collector, this score will be an undemanding and basically rewarding listening experience. There is absolutely nothing in House of Cards that is unique to this score, which is quite a statement given that it spans an interesting range of Horner's techniques from the period, but it exhibits a wholesome sense of wonder and goodness that is effective nevertheless. The composer does emphasize woodwinds more than usual here, using his regular specialty collaborators to provide well-mixed performances of pan flutes and traditional flutes to represent the girl's innocence. That tone is augmented by the strings, harp, percussion, and piano of the orchestra and electronic keyboarding to address the Mayan mysticism in ways not unfamiliar to Vibes and Where the River Runs Black. Horner has always had the ability to tickle the senses with flowing, seemingly detached woodwind performances that are as beautiful as they are elusive. House of Cards employs the flutes in ways identical to the forest environments of The Spitfire Grill and The New World. The motifs shared between these scores are remarkably similar but no less enticing, especially with the adaptation of the flute's role into the rhythmic portions of House of Cards. The girl in the story is essentially afforded three themes, the last of which actually providing the most impact on the score. Heard in "House of Cards" and the two "Virtual Reality" cues, Horner introduces swirling percussion akin to his 1980's fantasy music of a lighter touch, allowing the fluttering piano, triangles, tapped cymbals, blurting secondary flutes, and other precise instruments to form a Philip Glass-like bed of fluid movement while the girl's imagination is represented by the omnipresent flute motif. Naturally, a darker version of this idea exists in "The Roof" and "Near Accident." A lovely reunion theme for the girl and her mother is perhaps technically the primary idea for the film, a lullaby heard briefly in "Arriving Home" and returning when her mind is freed in "Reunion in Time." This identity, vaguely connected to Cocoon in progression, buoyantly opens "Closing Credits" with all the sincere innocence of Horner's plethora of children's themes of the era. A third theme, rooted in the Mayan location, starkly opens the score in "Opening Credits - The Processional," lingers with troublesome effect in "Distant Memories," and returns in full in "Reunion in Time." This material is the score's least interesting, applying pan flutes and droning electronic beats and tones in ways that plagued several other Horner scores. In general, the redemptive passages in House of Cards will remind of The Rocketeer and the ominously suspenseful portions will, strangely enough, recall Christopher Young's mysterious parts of Hellraiser II in the majority of "The Dream." On the whole, Horner's work for House of Cards is extremely well presented in terms of a narrative flow, and the three cues of rhythmic activity surrounding the imagination theme are definitely recommended for any Horner. The same could be said about the conservatively pretty "Closing Credits." Otherwise, the score is a bit mundane despite its impressive quotient of magic. The only album of the score was released in the form of 1,500 copies by Intrada Records in 2009, selling out almost immediately. It's a well presented album of attractive music, but it doesn't merit extraordinary resale prices. *** Track Listings:
Total Time: 59:21
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